Gemini’s $10m Bitcoin gift to Trump PAC lands amid bid to unwind CFTC settlement
Gemini sent $10m in Bitcoin to MAGA Inc weeks after joining the CFTC in a motion to reverse its own $5m fraud settlement.
Gemini Trust Company has transferred $10 million in Bitcoin to MAGA Inc, the pro-Trump super PAC, according to a filing lodged with the US Federal Election Commission and reported by Cointelegraph and Coincu. The disclosure lands at an awkward moment for the exchange: the gift was made roughly three weeks after Gemini and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a joint motion asking a New York federal court to reverse a $5 million settlement the regulator had imposed on the firm in January 2025.
The MAGA Inc July report to the FEC shows two separate Bitcoin contributions, each exceeding $5 million, sent on 19 June and attributed to Gemini under co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. The committee, registered with the FEC under identifier C00892471, may use the funds for independent expenditures backing President Donald Trump. As of 30 June, MAGA Inc had reported receiving more than $397 million in total, with advocacy group Public Citizen previously describing its donor base as dominated by corporate and billionaire contributors.
A settlement under review
The original CFTC settlement concerned allegations that Gemini made false or misleading statements. In May, attorneys for both Gemini and the CFTC filed a joint motion with the US District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking to reverse that penalty. CFTC Chair Michael Selig has said the agency, under the Biden administration, had “politically targeted” the Winklevoss brothers through its enforcement actions. A CFTC spokesperson told Cointelegraph in June that both parties had agreed the $5 million penalty would not be returned to Gemini even if the court grants the motion. As of Thursday, no decision had been posted to the public docket since the May filing.
The timing has already drawn criticism from Capitol Hill. In a June letter to Selig, Senator Elizabeth Warren described the joint motion and related developments as “concerning signs of a CFTC beholden to political pressures and interests of the wealthy insiders, unbound by the rule of law and failing to protect investors and market integrity.”
Part of a wider pattern of political giving
The MAGA Inc contribution is not the Winklevoss twins’ first foray into Trump-aligned political funding. Each brother donated $1 million to Trump’s 2024 campaign, and they later attended the signing ceremony for the GENIUS Act, a stablecoin payments law. They have also backed American Bitcoin, a mining venture linked to Trump’s sons, and previously contributed $21 million in Bitcoin to the Digital Freedom Fund PAC, a vehicle they said was intended to “support President Trump and his administration’s efforts” on crypto policy.
Gemini has also been an active participant in Washington’s crypto policy debates, having joined Coinbase and Kraken in pressing the Senate on token listing rules — giving the exchange a direct commercial stake in how forthcoming legislation, including the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, ultimately allocates regulatory authority.
A regulator with one seat filled
Selig, confirmed by the Senate in December 2025, remains the CFTC’s sole commissioner, with the White House yet to announce further nominations to what is normally a five-member bipartisan body. The vacancy is significant because the CLARITY Act, currently before Congress, is expected to hand the CFTC substantially greater authority over digital asset markets, meaning the agency’s near-term direction rests largely with one appointee as it simultaneously negotiates the reversal of its own enforcement action against a major donor to the president’s political operation.
Because the contribution was made in Bitcoin rather than cash, its reported dollar value depends on the token’s price at the moment of transfer, a factor FEC rules require political committees to account for in their itemised disclosures. Cointelegraph said it had contacted the CFTC and Gemini’s counsel, Avi Perry, for comment but had not received an immediate response.
Read more: Coinbase shares fall 4% as Senate rift over CLARITY Act ethics clause reopens
