CFTC seeks to vacate $5M Gemini settlement

A federal regulator has asked a court to throw out a multimillion-dollar settlement it reached with a major cryptocurrency exchange, marking a dramatic reversal in a long-running enforcement case. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Gemini Trust Company jointly filed a motion in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday seeking to vacate a January 2025 consent order that resolved allegations against the exchange.

The original case stemmed from statements Gemini made in 2017 during meetings with CFTC staff as part of a self-certification process for a proposed Bitcoin futures contract. The agency alleged the exchange made false or misleading statements about the difficulty of manipulating such contracts and the liquidity of the underlying market. The CFTC filed a formal enforcement complaint in 2022, and Gemini settled the matter in early 2025 by agreeing to pay a $5 million civil penalty and accepting a permanent injunction barring it from making false statements to the agency. The company did not admit or deny wrongdoing as part of that settlement.

In its new court filing, the CFTC stated that after a review, it concluded the original complaint should not have been...