Revolving Door Project | Oligarchs and the Trump Admin: Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss

Net Worth as of April 2, 2026: Cameron Winklevoss – $2.5 Billion (Forbes); Tyler Winklevoss – $2.5 Billion (Forbes)

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are billionaires who made their initial fortune from a 2004 lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg, accusing him of stealing their idea in the creation of Facebook. The Winklevoss twins have since expanded their fortunes through an $11 million purchase of Bitcoin in 2013, founding the venture capital firm Winklevoss Capital, and founding cryptocurrency exchange Gemini.

In June 2024, Tyler Winklevoss tweeted an endorsement of Trump’s candidacy and donated $1 million in bitcoin to his campaign. Winklevoss accused the Biden administration of declaring “war against crypto,” alleging that he has lost “multiple bank accounts” because he owns crypto. Winklevoss supported Trump as the “pro-Bitcoin, pro-crypto, and pro-business choice.”
- Cameron Winklevoss also donated $1 million to the Trump campaign.
  - The Winklevoss’ were refunded a portion of the contribution as it exceeded the $844,600 campaign finance limit.

The Winklevoss twins founded the crypto exchange firm Gemini. Tyler currently serves as President and Tyler serves as CEO.
- In January 2025, Gemini agreed to pay a $5 million settlement to the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for violating the Commodity Exchange Act and making “false or misleading statements or omissions to the Commission” related to Gemini’s self-certification of a bitcoin futures contract. The statements and omissions were “material to the Commission’s evaluation of whether the bitcoin futures contract would be susceptible to manipulation.”
- In 2024, Gemini agreed to return $1.1 billion to its customers and pay $37 million in fines to the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). NYDFS said Gemini “failed to conduct due diligence” over its partner Genesis in their joint Gemini Earn venture. Genesis was “later accused of massive fraud” that prevented customers from accessing $1.8 billion in their own funds.

After initially supporting the nomination of Brian Quintenz to the CFTC, the Winklevoss’ personally spoke to Trump urging him to revoke Quintenz’s nomination.
- According to Politico, the Winklevoss’ soured on Quintenz after he testified in support of expanding the CFTC budget to include crypto regulation.
- The Senate Agriculture Committee then removed a scheduled vote to advance Quintenz’s nomination at the behest of the White House, despite claims from the White House spokesperson that Quintenz was still the nominee. The White House eventually pulled Quintenz’ nomination in September 2025.

The Winklevoss twins invested in American Bitcoin, a crypto-mining venture heavily backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. According to reporting from Bloomberg, American Bitcoin will be going public in September as part of a merger with Gryphon Digital Mining that could value Eric Trump’s stake at $367 million.

How are the Winklevoss twins benefitting from the Trump administration?

Tyler Winklevoss was named a charter member of the agency’s newly formed Innovation Advisory Committee. The committee, which will “provide recommendations relating to the impact and implications of technological change on financial markets and the U.S. economy,” is made up of crypto and gambling executives, including the CEOs of Coinbase, Polymarket, Fanduel, DraftKings, Kalshi, and Crypto.com, among others.
- Winklevoss was named to the committee by CFTC Chair Mike Selig, a former attorney at Willkie Farr & Gallagher where he represented crypto firms eToro and Paradigm. Trump appointed Selig to the role after the Winklevoss’ successfully convinced the administration to abandon Brian Quintenz’s nomination. Selig most recently served as chief counsel of the SEC’s crypto task force.

Under Selig’s leadership, the CFTC has taken the side of prediction markets lawsuits with states over the regulation of sports betting on the platform. While several states have defended their right to regulate gambling, Selig and the CFTC have argued that prediction markets fall under their jurisdiction, including those related to sporting events. If successful, this would effectively force states to allow unfettered sports gambling and other prediction market bets.
- In December, Gemini received CFTC licensing for and launched its own prediction market, Gemini Predictions, in every state. Restrictions on Gemini’s ability to operate the market in any given state could threaten the company’s bottom line, as it lost $582 million in 2025 and must compete with established prediction market firms like Kalshi and Polymarket.
- Tyler Winkevoss tweeted in support of Selig, saying “The @CFTC has federal jurisdiction over prediction markets and @ChairmanSelig is going to defend it. This is the way.”

In 2023, Gemini was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), accusing it of failing to abide by disclosure requirements in its Gemini Earn program, which allowed the lending of crypto assets. The SEC went so far as to freeze hundreds of millions of dollars worth of customer assets. Trump’s SEC, however, dismissed the enforcement action in January 2026, citing Gemini’s settlements with state regulators and the “100 percent in-kind return of Gemini Earn investors’ crypto assets.”

Gemini went public in September 2025, raising $425 million thanks in part to Trump’s crypto-friendly regulatory environment. Despite the friendly environment, the Winklevoss’ have been unable to maintain the momentum: Gemini stock has dropped over 80% since its IPO and they now face a lawsuit from shareholders who claim they were misled.

For more information, see the Revolving Door Project’s Oligarchs in Trump World tracker.

Image Credit: “File:The Winklevoss twins.jpg” by cellanr is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Oligarchs and the Trump Admin: Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss