In a rare twist, both sides of the legal battle teamed up — Gemini and the CFTC jointly asked the court to vacate a $5 million settlement judgment. The request was shot down anyway.
The adversarial posture this case should have had was nowhere to be found: on one side, crypto exchange Gemini; on the other, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the regulator tasked with overseeing it. The two had previously faced off in litigation, yet here they were, jointly petitioning a federal judge to vacate the $5 million settlement judgment.
The judge wasn't convinced. According to the court's opinion, Gemini had chosen to settle voluntarily three weeks before trial was set to begin — it wasn't a judgment forced upon the company. The court also noted that a shift in regulatory policy direction isn't enough grounds to reopen a settled judgment. In other words, the judge determined that the settlement was a voluntary agreement both parties had signed at the time, and a later change in circumstances doesn't warrant vacating it.
For now, publicly available information is limited to the court's rejection ruling. The original cause of action, the specific terms of the settlement agreement, and the full reasoning behind both parties' joint motion to vacate have yet to be disclosed.
