Judge refuses Gemini and CFTC bid to undo $5M settlement

A federal judge in New York has turned down a rare joint request from crypto exchange Gemini and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to cancel the $5 million settlement they reached in January 2025, Cointelegraph and The Block reported. US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein issued the ruling on Thursday.

Why both sides wanted out

On May 27, the regulator and the exchange asked the court together to vacate the deal. They pointed to an internal CFTC review that alleged misconduct inside the agency's enforcement division, including reliance on a questionable whistleblower, improper pressure and attempts to keep evidence from being disclosed. The CFTC also said it would not have brought the case under its current enforcement standards.

What the judge decided

• Gemini knew about weaknesses in the CFTC's case when it agreed to settle, less than three weeks before trial was due to start.
• Additional internal CFTC documents obtained later were not enough to undo a settlement Gemini entered voluntarily.
• President Donald Trump's digital-asset executive order and the agency's new enforcement approach are changes in policy, not a significant change in law, so they do not justify relief.

What stays in place

The ruling keeps the permanent injunction that bars Gemini from making false or misleading statements to the CFTC. The order also forbids Gemini from publicly denying the findings, although the CFTC said in June it would no longer enforce that clause. The $5 million penalty has already been paid, and the CFTC previously said it would not be refunded even if the settlement were overturned.

The original case

The dispute concerned Gemini's bitcoin auction. Under the consent order, the exchange did not disclose that some participants traded with borrowed money, that self-trading had happened despite safeguards and that some traders had special fee deals. It also passed on trading-volume data without flagging those practices.

Former CFTC chair Timothy Massad had called the attempt to reverse a settled case "extraordinarily unusual." The decision is a reminder that regulators' changing priorities do not automatically erase past enforcement, a theme also visible in BitMEX's UK lawsuit over unlicensed derivatives. For tips on choosing a regulated platform, see How to buy bitcoin.