The Gemini crypto exchange has reportedly been sued in New York with investors blaming it for misleading promises at the time of its IPO last year. Marc Methvin, the plaintiff, has filed a class-action lawsuit against Gemini in the Manhattan federal court this week.
The lawsuit has essentially alleged that Gemini has changed its focus from being a crypto exchange to later shifting its focus towards a prediction market calling it Gemini 2.0.
Methvin has called Gemini’s corporate pivot to a prediction-market-centric business model as abrupt, especially after having projected a strong plan to expand its exchange business internationally and then not taking active steps to fulfil these plans after completing its IPO.
In September last year, Gemini’s parent firm called the Gemini Space Station, went public on Nasdaq with its shares having opened at $37.01, above an already raised IPO price of $28 a piece, at which it raised $425 million by selling around 15.2 million shares. With this IPO, Gemini’s valuation had climbed to $3.3 billion.
At the time, the exchange founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss had expressed optimism around expanding the exchange’s presence internationally.
Contrary to these promises, however, Gemini laid off 25 percent of its workforce in February. Around 200 staff members from Gemini’s U.S., EU, and Australian teams were affected in this round of firings.
These layoffs were part of Gemini’s pivot to “Gemini 2.0” that included concentrating its focus on Singapore and the U.S. and plans to step into the prediction markets arena.
In February itself, Gemini lost three C-suite executives from its team — the chief legal officer, chief operational officer, and chief financial officer. Following these departures, the shares of Gemini Space Station (GEMI) had come to the price point of $6.54.
On the heels of this lawsuit GEMI was trading at $5.64 on Friday, having fallen by 5.91 percent over the last day. The stock’s ATH price at launch had touched $45.
Source: Yahoo Finance
Plaintiff Methvin along with other investors supporting the lawsuit are reportedly seeking a jury trial and damages for investors who purchased shares at “artificially inflated prices” after Gemini’s IPO.
Gemini’s response to the lawsuit remains awaited for now.
The company did disclose its 2025 Q4 revenue claiming that it spiked by 39 percent YoY to $60.3 million.