Consumer complaint received 2024-08-17 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Virtual currency
Issue: Other transaction problem — 
Company: Winklevoss Exchange LLC
State: UT

Complaint narrative:
The type of account was a crypto currency exchange account from Gemini Trust Company , LLC. Per their user agreement, any crypto currency traded inside any of their accounts is not found on the block-chain. In other words, it is off-chain and any crypto-currency purchased inside an account on Gemini is basically an I-owe-you. The dates of transactions occurred from XX/XX/year>XXXX  to XX/XX/year>. The dates of personal communication/conversations I had with them occurred from XX/XX/year>XXXX  to XX/XX/year>. I initiated contact with them because the company placed a security hold on my account prohibiting the transfer of funds from the money inside my Gemini account onto the blockchain. We emailed back and forth and I followed all their requests to remove this security hold on my account but they refused to do it. 

Their website is as follows : www.gemini.com They committed two acts which were problematic for me which is as follows : 1. They exerted a security hold on my account which had the effect of exerting control over the direction of flow of my finances against my wishes and intent. The security hold prevented my finances from being transferred from my Gemini account towards the blockchain thus locking up my finances inside my Gemini account. Screenshots verifying this are available upon request. The very earliest I have on record of these security holds is XX/XX/year>XXXX  and never has been relented since that time. 
2. They sent me two separate emails indicating to me that my account should be closed. The first email occurred on Wednesday XX/XX/year>XXXX  and the second one occurred on XXXX, XXXX, XXXX. Documentation of these emails are available upon request. These emails were provided to me without any provocation upon my part. 

I was treated this way even though I was 100 % compliant with their requests and instructions with the aim of lifting the security hold upon my account. Documentation of these exchanges are available upon request. Gemini has provided no reasons for the above two actions other than to say that their reasons for doing so are confidential. Although the reasons for their actions will never truly be known without a full confession on their part, a very strong likely probable cause becomes obvious upon looking at the finances and the timing at which they were performed. 

I transferred all my funds into my Gemini account from XX/XX/year> to XX/XX/year>. During that time, the price of XXXX ranged in price from {$3600.00} to {$3900.00}. Since those purchase dates, the price of XXXX slowly declined until it reached a low of {$2900.00} on XX/XX/year>. The price of XXXX then started to rise for a few days thus indicating the price was done with downward movement. Then on XX/XX/year>, I was informed of the account closure. Remember, the earliest document I have indicating a security hold occurred on XX/XX/year>. Those are the facts without any conclusions to be drawn from those facts. 

Though Gemini refuses to provide an explanation for their behavior, it is of my opinion that their behavior was intentional to profit off me against my will. This is evidenced by the fact that they had to do both of those actions to exert control over my finances and profit off me thereby. If just one of those actions were done, there would be no way for them to exert control over my finance. For example, if Gemini were interested in closing my account, they could have not had a security hold on my account thereby allowing me to transfer my funds to the blockchain without a loss of assets on my part. On the other hand, if Gemini were interested in preserving the security hold but did not intend to close my account, then I could have kept my funds inside my Gemini account thus withdrawing it into XXXX XXXX  at my discretion at the time that I desired. This indeed was my intent to do before I was informed of the account closures. I would have withdrawn those funds out of my account after the hopeful event that XXXX XXXX well beyond my purchase price after the formation of the XXXX. This would still allow me to still achieve a profit from my investment idea. 

However, this was not to be. The truth is that I lost money and assets due to the actions of Gemini. The exact amount of money which I lost due to Geminis actions is {$5000.00}. This was a number calculated in XXXX XXXX which I provided to you. All the numbers provided in the XXXX document can be verified with other documents provided to you at your request. 

It is also worth noting that an investment strategy that several investors utilize to earn money is to sell a stock or an asset high and then to buy back that same stock or asset low. This is called a short. This is the strategy that Gemini used on me at my expense. This was done on me against my understanding that they were intending to do this to me and goes against the understanding that they were to act as they were advertising which is to be an exchange. Please see the following website : www.gemini.comXXXX XXXX XXXX Gemini should not be called an Exchange if they are going to restrict the path of the money. 

I thought it was odd that I received an email indicating that my account was closed on XX/XX/year> when my account was already down to {$0.00}. If it was so important to them, they could have always just deleted my account as they would do in any normal database. 

I have observed that they have treated other individuals as they have treated me. For at least 3 emails, they provided the same wording to others as they have me as they were discussing the security hold on the account. They provided the same wording to me as they did to others in their response to my complaint to the XXXX XXXX XXXX. Because of this I know for a fact that the way they have treated me is the same way they have treated others.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation