Crypto exchange Gemini is over three months late in filing its UK accounts
Crypto exchange Gemini’s UK subsidiaries have missed the deadline to file their 2021 accounts by over three months.
UK tax authorities require companies to file accounts with Companies House nine months after the end of a financial year. The deadline for the filing of Gemini’s 2021 accounts was Sept. 30, 2022. Gemini did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the delay.
While failing to file a company’s accounts on time is fairly common, it’s considered a criminal offence under the Companies Act 2006. Companies that don’t submit promptly receive a penalty, determined by the length of delay. For example, accounts that are between three and six months late are fined £750 ($900). The amount is doubled if accounts are filed late in two successive financial years.
Companies can also request an extension. Fintech giant Revolut, for example, missed its Sept. 30 deadline and received an extension until Dec. 31, which it also missed.
Companies House records, however, don’t show that either of Gemini’s UK subsidiaries, Gemini Payments UK Ltd. and Gemini Intergalactic UK Ltd., received an extension. It just lists the accounts as overdue.
A screenshot from Gemini Payments UK Ltd on Companies House
Gemini’s UK operations
Gemini was co-founded by twins Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss and is headquartered in New York. However, the exchange has operated in the UK since 2020 and is an FCA-registered cryptoasset business. Its UK subsidiaries were recently renamed from Gemini Europe Ltd. and Gemini Europe Services Ltd., according to Dec. 22 Companies House filings.
The exchange, which has raised over $400 million from investors such as Pantera Capital and 10T Holdings, also recently secured a Virtual Asset Service Provide (VASP) license in Ireland, which enables the exchange to expand into Europe.
This isn’t the first time Gemini’s been late in filing its UK accounts. Gemini Payments UK only filed its 2020 accounts on March 2022, with Gemini Intergalactic UK following in August 2022.
Gemini’s woes
Gemini recently became embroiled in the collapse of rival crypto exchange FTX when it had to pause withdrawals for its Gemini Earn program, which enabled users to lend out their crypto for returns.
The exchange partnered with Genesis Global Capital, the lending arm of crypto trading firm Genesis, for its Earn program. Genesis’s lending arm took a significant hit from the collapses of FTX and hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and ultimately had to pause withdrawals. This meant Gemini also had to freeze funds in its Earn program.
Cameron Winklevoss recently sparred with Barry Silbert, the head of Digital Currency Group (DCG), on the issue. Winklevoss said that Gemini had tried to engage with Silbert and DCG, Genesis’s parent company, on multiple occasions but had been unable to move forward with its attempts to unlock funds.
Silbert pushed back on Twitter, defending DCG and saying his company delivered its own proposal to Gemini on Dec. 29 without receiving a response.
Last week, investors filed a proposed class-action complaint against Gemini and the Winklevoss twins. They accuse the company and its founders of fraud and violations of the Exchange Act. Gemini’s chief operating officer Noah Perlman also left the company at the start of this year, according to a report from Bloomberg that cites a source familiar with the matter.
It’s unclear whether Gemini’s broader troubles have had anything to do with the exchange missing its UK accounting deadline.
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Disclaimer: Beginning in 2021, Michael McCaffrey, the former CEO and majority owner of The Block, took a series of loans from founder and former FTX and Alameda CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. McCaffrey resigned from the company in December 2022 after failing to disclose those transactions.
