Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the billionaire twin brothers who co-founded the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, said they each donated $1 million in bitcoin to former President Trump.
“In recent years, the Biden administration has openly declared war on encryption,” Tyler Winklevoss posted on social media platform X. “He has weaponized multiple government agencies to intimidate, harass and prosecute the good players in our industry in an effort to destroy it.”
Cameron Winklevoss, who said he also donated 15.47 BTC ($1 million) to Trump, posted on X that Trump “will put an end to the Biden administration’s war on crypto,” dubbing the former “Pro-Bitcoin Pro-Crypto Pro-Business.”
During a campaign campaign in California in early June, Trump introduced himself as the “crypto president,” portraying himself as a supporter of the industry.
Biden has angered crypto advocates over his moves to regulate the industry, with the president recently veto a Congressional resolution that would overturn a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule opposed by the industry. Republicans, including House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), also criticized administration policies.
In 2022, Biden revealed a cryptocurrency framework that would empower the SEC and Federal Trade Commission to better regulate the industry.
The SEC charged Gemini last year with offering unregistered securities, and the company awake pay $21 million to settle the charges.
In his endorsement post, Tyler Winklevoss criticized what he called “the weaponization of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against crypto.”
“The Biden administration’s SEC has not written a single rule for the crypto industry to help any of its participants understand how to navigate the regulatory landscape for this new asset paradigm,” he wrote. “This is intentional.”
“By taking the ridiculous position that almost all crypto is a security, the Biden SEC has given itself the plausibility and carte blanche to initiate litigation against any crypto project and company in the United States. The game is simple. Make compliance impossible and then sue everyone for not complying. And that’s exactly what Biden’s SEC has done repeatedly with good actors in the space,” he argued.
Twins was also banned from operating crypto lending programs in New York after state Attorney General Letitia James (D) accused them of misleading thousands of investors about the risks associated with a program they launched.
The Winklevoss twins are each worth $2.7 billion, according to Forbes. They gained fame after suing Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, claiming he stole their ideas when launching Facebook.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
