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Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss (L-R), co-founders of crypto exchange Gemini, on stage at the Bitcoin 2021 Convention in Miami, Florida.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder and president of digital currency exchange Gemini, accused the head of crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group of engaging in “bad faith” tactics but insists he wants to resolve a complex lending dispute with the company that emerged in the wake of FTX’s collapse.

The spat arises from a pact Gemini has with Genesis Global Capital, the lending arm of crypto investment firm Genesis Global Trading, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group. Gemini offered users yields as high as 8% via its lending product Gemini Earn. To generate those returns, Gemini lent users’ funds to Genesis Global Capital, which in turn loaned them out to institutional borrowers.

A few days after FTX filed for bankruptcy, Gemini paused redemptions for its Gemini Earn service as Genesis Global Capital also suspended new loan originations and redemptions. Gemini has denied any exposure to Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire, but Genesis said in a Nov. 10 tweet that its derivatives business has roughly $175 million in funds locked inside FTX.

Winklevoss on Monday penned an open letter to Digital Currency Group boss Barry Silbert, alleging Silbert refused to meet with the Gemini team on multiple occasions to find a resolution to the liquidity crisis facing clients of Gemini Earn.

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According to the letter, Gemini Earn clients are owed more than $900 million from Genesis.

“For the past six weeks, we have done everything we can to engage with you in a good faith and collaborative manner in order to reach a consensual resolution for you to pay back the $900 million that you owe, while helping you preserve your business,” Winklevoss said in the letter, which was tweeted publicly Monday.

“We appreciate that there are startup costs to any restructuring, and at times things don’t go as fast as we would all like. However, it is now becoming clear that you have been engaging in bad faith stall tactics.”

‘Beyond commingled’

Winklevoss accused Silbert of hiding behind behind “lawyers, investment bankers, and process,” adding, “After six weeks, your behavior is not only completely unacceptable, it is unconscionable.” He also alleged that Digital Currency Group and Genesis are “beyond commingled.”

Digital Currency Group owes Genesis $1.675 billion. The debts consist of a $575 million liability due in May 2023, and a $1.1 billion promissory note Genesis issued to Three Arrows Capital, which Digital Currency Group absorbed following the controversial crypto hedge fund’s collapse.

“To be clear, this mess is entirely of your own making. Digital Currency Group (DCG) — of which you are the founder and CEO — owes Genesis (its wholly owned subsidiary) ~1.675 billion,” Winklevoss said.

“This is money that Genesis owes to Earn users and other creditors. You took this money — the money of schoolteachers — to fuel greedy share buybacks, illiquid venture investments, and kamikaze Grayscale NAV [net asset value] trades that ballooned the fee-generating AUM [assets under management] of your Trust; all at the expense of creditors and all for your own personal gain.”

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In addition to Genesis, Digital Currency Group also owns Grayscale, the embattled digital asset manager. Grayscale is facing difficulties of its own, with its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust trading at a 45% discount to the price of its underlying asset even as bitcoin trades at multiyear lows.

“DCG did not borrow $1.675 billion from Genesis,” Silbert said in reply to Winklevoss’ tweet Monday.

“DCG has never missed an interest payment to Genesis and is current on all loans outstanding; next loan maturity is May 2023,” he added. “DCG delivered to Genesis and your advisors a proposal on December 29th and has not received any response.”

‘Time is running out’

Despite the fiery exchange, Winklevoss said he wants to reach a solution to the liquidity crunch by Sunday. “We remain ready and willing to work with you, but time is running out,” he said.

A Gemini spokesperson declined to comment further on the matter when contacted by CNBC.

The accusations from Winklevoss against Silbert come as his crypto exchange Gemini faces legal threats from users. A group of investors filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, alleging it sold its Earn interest-bearing accounts without first registering them as securities. Crypto lender BlockFi was forced to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission and 32 states $100 million in penalties to settle charges that its retail lending product violated U.S. securities laws.

Three Arrows Capital co-founder Zhu Su also weighed in on the matter Tuesday. In a Twitter thread, Su said that Digital Currency Group “took substantial losses in the summer from our bankruptcy” and other firms impacted by the failure of algorithmic stablecoin terraUSD. Su, whose company collapsed into insolvency after making risky bets across the industry, has been active on Twitter even as lawyers seek to establish his whereabouts, and he reportedly faces investigations from U.S. regulators.

Gemini and Genesis are the latest firms to get caught up in the messy, entangled contagion resulting from FTX’s fall into bankruptcy last year.

Evgeny Gaevoy, founder and CEO of crypto market maker Wintermute, said in a November interview that industry contagion is expected to be widespread “because anyone in the crypto space and beyond crypto could have been exposed to them one way or another.” Wintermute itself had funds trapped in FTX, the amount of which was “within our risk tolerances and does not have a significant impact on our overall financial position,” according to a Nov. 9 tweet.

— CNBC’s Ari Levy, MacKenzie Sigalos and Rohan Goswami contributed to this report.

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Government’s Intel intervention is ‘essential’ for national security, tech analyst says

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Government's Intel intervention is 'essential' for national security, tech analyst says

It's 'essential' for the Trump administration to take a stake in Intel: D.A. Davidson's Gil Luria

A government intervention in struggling chipmaker Intel is “essential” for the sake of national security, analyst Gil Luria said Friday, following a report that the Trump administration is weighing taking a stake in the company.

“We’re all capitalists,” Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson, said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We don’t want government to intervene and own private enterprise, but this is national security.”

Bloomberg reported Thursday that the Trump administration is considering having the U.S. government take a stake in Intel. The news sent Intel shares higher, and the stock climbed again Friday.

Intel previously declined to comment on the report.

Luria said such a deal is needed to revive Intel and reduce the country’s reliance on companies like Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor to manufacture chips. President Donald Trump has called for more chips and high-end technology to be made in the U.S.

Read more CNBC tech news

How the White House could structure such an intervention is still in question. Bloomberg reported Friday that the administration has discussed using funds from the CHIPS Act.

Intel received $7.9 billion from the Department of Commerce through the CHIPS Act, and it was awarded roughly $3 billion under the CHIPS Act for the Pentagon’s Secure Enclave program.

“Intel has had many opportunities over decades to get it right, and it hasn’t. So we need to intervene,” Luria said. “The government’s going to come in and it’s going to give Intel unfair advantages, and if it’s going to do that, it wants a piece of the business.”

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan met with Trump at the White House on Monday after the president called for his resignation based on allegations that he has ties to China.

Luria pointed to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s comments that the rise of superintelligent AI could be “the next wave of nuclear proliferation,” as evidence that direct intervention by the government is needed.

“We can’t rely on somebody else making shell casings for our nuclear arsenal,” Luria said. “We have to get it right.”

'Fast Money' traders react to the Trump admin possibly taking a stake in Intel

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Applied Materials shares sink 10% on light forecast amid macroeconomic uncertainties

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Applied Materials shares sink 10% on light forecast amid macroeconomic uncertainties

The Applied Materials logo on Dec. 17, 2024.

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Applied Materials shares sank more than 10% in extended trading Thursday as the semiconductor equipment company provided outlook for the current quarter that came in light.

Here’s how Applied Materials did in its third-quarter earnings results versus LSEG consensus estimates:

  • EPS: $2.48, adjusted, versus $2.36 estimated.
  • Revenue: $7.3 billion vs $7.22 billion estimated.

Applied Materials said it expects $2.11 per share in adjusted earnings in the current quarter, lower than LSEG estimates of $2.39 per share. The company said to expect $6.7 billion in revenue, versus $7.34 billion estimated.

CEO Gary Dickerson said that the current macroeconomic and policy environment is “creating increased uncertainty and lower visibility.” He said the company’s China business is particularly effected by the uncertainty.

The Trump administration’s tariffs could double the price of imported chips unless companies buying them commit to building in the U.S. Applied Materials makes tools for chip foundries to physically make chips, much of which currently happens in Asia.

Applied Materials said that it has a large backlog of pending export license applications with the U.S. government, but that it’s assuming none of them will be issued in the next quarter.

“We are expecting a decline in revenue in the fourth quarter driven by both digestion of capacity in China and non-linear demand from leading-edge customers given market concentration and fab timing,” the company’s finance chief said in a statement. He added that it expected lower China business to continue for several more quarters.

Applied Materials reported $1.78 billion in net income, or $2.22 per diluted share in the quarter, versus $1.71 billion or $2.05 in the year-ago period.

The company’s most important division, semiconductor systems, reported $5.43 billion in sales, topping estimates, and representing a 10% rise from last year.

Applied Materials was praised by President Donald Trump earlier this month after it was included in an Apple program to make more chips in the U.S.

Apple said it would partner with the chipmaker to produce more manufacturing equipment in Austin, Texas.

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Intel stock climbs 7% on report Trump administration is considering stake in chipmaker

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Intel stock climbs 7% on report Trump administration is considering stake in chipmaker

Lip-Bu Tan, chief executive officer of Intel Corp., departs following a meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Aug. 11, 2025.

Alex Wroblewski | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Intel shares rose 7% on Thursday after Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration is in talks with the chipmaker to have the U.S. government take a stake in the struggling company.

Intel is the only U.S. company with the capability to manufacture the fastest chips on U.S. shores, although rivals including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung also have U.S. factories. President Donald Trump has called for more chips and high technology to be manufactured in the U.S.

The government’s stake would help fund factories that Intel is currently building in Ohio, according to the report.

Earlier this week, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan visited Trump in the White House, a meeting that took place after the president had called for Tan’s resignation based on allegations he has ties to China.

Intel said at the time that Tan is “deeply committed to advancing U.S. national and economic security interests.” An Intel representative declined to comment about reports that the government is considering taking a stake in the company.

“We look forward to continuing our work with the Trump Administration to advance these shared priorities, but we are not going to comment on rumors or speculation,” the spokesperson said.

Tan took over Intel earlier this year after the chipmaker failed to gain significant share in artificial intelligence chips, while it was spending heavily to build its foundry business, which manufactures chips for other companies.

Intel’s foundry business has yet to secure a major customer, which would be a critical step in moving towards expansion and giving other potential customers the confidence to turn to Intel for manufacturing.

In July, Tan said that Intel was canceling plans for manufacturing sites in Germany and Poland and would slow down development in Ohio, adding that spending at the chipmaker would be closely scrutinized.

Under Trump, the U.S. government has increasingly moved to put itself at the center of deals in major industries. Last week, it said it would take 15% of certain Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices chip sales to China. The Pentagon bought a $400 million equity stake in rare-earth miner MP Materials. It also took a “golden share” in U.S. Steel as part of a deal to allow Nippon Steel to buy the U.S. industrial giant.

Intel shares are now up 19% this year after losing 60% of their value in 2024, the worst year on record for the chipmaker.

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