Gemini receives arbitration support: no liability for the collapse of the Earn lending program

According to CNBC, Gemini Space Station won a legal victory in August, with arbitrators ruling that the cryptocurrency exchange platform did not mislead users and is not responsible for the collapse of its Earn lending program. The claim was made by a user of the digital asset company's lending program Earn at the end of 2024. According to the ruling, there was insufficient evidence to prove that Gemini lied to customers or was negligent in its due diligence with its main lending partner, Genesis Global Capital.

The Earn program was launched in 2021, allowing users to earn up to 7.4% annualized returns by lending cryptocurrency. Under this program, Gemini lent assets to institutional borrowers, with Genesis acting as an intermediary. However, in November 2022, Gemini suspended withdrawals from the Earn program, angering some of its more than 300,000 users. This move came shortly after Genesis suspended new loan issuance and redemptions due to a liquidity crisis caused by the downturn in the cryptocurrency market that year. After the freeze on Earn withdrawals, several customers filed legal complaints against Gemini. The New York Attorney General also sued Gemini over the Earn program and reached a $50 million settlement with the company in 2024.

In February 2024, Gemini announced that the company had reached a "principled settlement" with Genesis and other creditors regarding the Genesis bankruptcy case. Three months later, Earn users received $2.18 billion in digital assets in physical form, equivalent to 97% of the digital assets owed to Earn users, which is $1 billion more than when Genesis suspended withdrawals in 2022.