Gemini's Winklevoss Demands Sacking of DCG Chief

In another open letter on Tuesday, this time addressed to the board of DCG, Winklevoss called for the sacking of Silbert, citing DCG's inability to find a suitable resolution with creditors of Genesis.

, and Blockhead

11 January 2023 . 4:56 PM

2 min read

Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss has demanded the removal of Digital Currency Group (DCG) CEO Barry Silbert, escalating a bitter public spat that started lasted week, after Winklevoss wrote an open letter to Silbert accusing him of “bad faith stalling tactics" and claiming that DCG owes Gemini a total of US$1.675 billion.

This is another desperate and unconstructive publicity stunt from @cameron to deflect blame from himself and Gemini, who are solely responsible for operating Gemini Earn and marketing the program to its customers.
— Digital Currency Group (@DCGco) January 10, 2023

"He has proven unfit to run DCG and unwilling and unable to find a resolution with creditors that is both fair and reasonable," Winklevoss wrote.

"As a result, Gemini, acting on behalf of 340,000 Earn users, requests that the Board remove Barry Silbert as CEO, effective immediately, and install a new CEO, who will right the wrongs that occurred under Barry's watch. Genesis lenders, including Earn users, have been seriously harmed and deserve a resolution for the recovery of their assets," he added.

Last week, Winklevoss stated that Silbert had until January 8 to find a solution for the recovery of the assets, to which Silbert responded by saying that the amount cited by Winklevoss (US$1.675 billion) was inaccurate.

The showdown continues

Winklevoss' latest barb at Silbert prompted a response from DCG on Twitter, who described Winklevoss' opinions as a "publicity stunt" for him to deflect blame from himself and Gemini.

Following Winklevoss' statement, Silbert also penned a letter to DCG shareholders and provided a written Q&A, in which he reaffirmed the company's commitment to "build a better financial system."

"Looking ahead to 2023 and beyond, the industry has a lot of hard work to do to re-establish its credibility and reputation, which have been all but destroyed by a wave of unprecedented fraud and criminal behavior unlike anything I’ve seen in my career. This is going to be a challenging year for all of us, but I remain optimistic," Silbert wrote.

Genesis is currently embroiled in a dispute with crypto exchange Gemini – it owes users of the Gemini Earn program some US$900 million. It was the program's exclusive yield source and sent a lot of those funds on to DCG, which bought some mixture of GBTC and DCG stock.

On Thursday, Coindesk reported that Genesis has laid off almost a third of its workforce, which now stands at 145 employees. The report said that Genesis's sales and business-development departments "have been especially hard hit."