A US judge deemed a case claiming that the cryptocurrency companies Gemini and Genesis had violated securities laws to be credible.
The U.S. SEC filed a complaint against Gemini Crypto Exchange and Genesis Crypto Lending about an Earn program that both companies hosted. District Judge Edgardo Ramos refused the applications to dismiss the case until late 2022.
Judge Ramos stated in a court judgment dated March 13 that the SEC had presented adequate evidence to claim that Gemini and Genesis had broken U.S. securities laws.
The commission’s references to the Howey and Reves tests were noted in the courtroom finding in the Southern District of New York as sufficient grounds for qualifying the Earn program under the securities laws currently in effect. According to Judge Edgardo Ramos:
“At this stage, under both tests, the Court finds that the complaint plausibly alleges that Defendants offered and sold unregistered securities through the Gemini Earn program. As a result, Defendants’ motions to dismiss are denied.”
SEC litigators contended that the cryptocurrency businesses misrepresented this Earn product as an investment option in their January 2023 lawsuit. Earn investors anticipated profits from the labor of others, meeting the agency’s standards for securities.
Genesis, for instance, has made prior attempts to dismiss the SEC’s allegations because Gemini’s Earn program functioned more like a loan creation model than a securities contract.
In a civil complaint, the subsidiary of Digital Currency Group also settled for $21 million with the commission. Numerous enforcement actions have been brought against both companies by U.S. agencies, notably the office of the New York Attorney General (NYAG). NYAG Letitia James filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Gemini, Genesis, and DCG for allegedly engaging in a cryptocurrency scam.