President Donald Trump posing with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss on June 20, 2024 (Image: Tyler Winklevoss / X.com / @tyler)
Two of President Donald Trump's donors have been able to exert immense influence over the U.S. government's chief financial regulator — largely due to their closeness with the president and his family.
That's according to a Monday article in the New York Times, which reported that Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (also known as the Winklevoss Twins) have managed to singlehandedly shift how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approaches the cryptocurrency industry. The Times reported that the Winklevosses, whose combined net worth is in excess of $9 billion, have not only turned an SEC investigation with potential for a criminal referral from the Department of Justice into a settlement, but have effectively stopped the SEC from opening any new cases into crypto firms since Trump's second presidency began.
Crypto firms were routinely investigated by former President Joe Biden's SEC, with the Times reporting that Trump's predecessor averaged two crypto investigations per month while Trump's SEC averaged one new investigation each month in his first term. Some of those firms, like Binance and Coinbase, were referred to the DOJ for criminal indictments. However, the SEC has yet to open a single investigation into any cryptocurrency companies in 2025, per the Times' reporting.
When Trump came into office, the Winklevosses were being investigated by the SEC after their firm, Gemini Trust, saw its crypto program collapse, affecting 230,000 investors. According to the Times, Gemini collaborated with another firm, Genesis Global Capital, that went bankrupt after making bad loans with roughly $2 billion worth of investors' assets. Investors only managed to recover their money after an 18-month fight.
A suit filed by plaintiffs in New York was settled, though the SEC was still litigating the Gemini as of Trump's second inauguration. As of September, the SEC announced it had resolved the Gemini case, meaning a settlement announcement is likely pending. When Tyler Winklevoss endorsed Trump in June of last year, he did so while also bashing the Biden administration's regulatory approach to crypto.
"President Donald J. Trump is the pro-Bitcoin, pro-crypto, and pro-business choice. This is not even remotely open for debate. Anyone who tells you otherwise is severely misinformed, delusional or not telling the truth," Tyler Winklevoss posted to X. "It’s time to take our country back. It’s time for the crypto army to send a message to Washington. That attacking us is political suicide."
The SEC's new kid-gloves approach to crypto comes at a time when Trump has drastically increased his net worth since taking the oath of office for the second time, largely due to crypto. Forbes reported in June that $3.3 billion of the president's estimated $5.5 billion in net worth is held in cryptocurrency. His eldest adult sons, Don Jr. and Eric, are also crypto investors. The Winklevosses have funded the firm American Bitcoin, which Eric Trump co-founded and where Donald Trump Jr. is a key investor.
Click here to read the Times' full report (subscription required).
