The Winklevoss Twins Paid 2.5x the Share Price to Lift Gemini Off the Floor
May 15, 2026 – 1:05 pm
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Gemini Space Station shares surged more than 20% in premarket on Friday after the Winklevoss Capital Fund bought $100 million of stock at $14 per share, well above Thursday’s $5.26 close.
The Winklevoss twins have written a $100 million cheque to their own company. Winklevoss Capital Fund, the family vehicle of Gemini Space Station co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, closed a private placement on Thursday for 7,142,857 Class A shares at $14 each.
This is more than 2.5x Gemini’s Thursday close price of $5.26 on the Nasdaq.
The market responded positively to the news, with Gemini’s stock rising over 20% in premarket trading on Friday following a Q1 result that beat expectations on revenue and loss.
Revenue reached $50.3 million, up 42% year-on-year and surpassing the $47.9 million FactSet consensus, with a loss of 93 cents per share versus an expected $1.03. Both figures remain within loss territory for a public exchange, but they were encouraging signs alongside a strong show of confidence from the founders.
The financing structure is noteworthy. The Winklevoss vehicle paid the $100 million entirely in bitcoin, transferring approximately 1,258 BTC to Gemini’s balance sheet at the agreed valuation. This injects a bitcoin-denominated treasury into Gemini and recapitalizes its balance sheet, which had been thinning due to losses.
Tyler Winklevoss stated that the market had “significantly undervalued Gemini” and that the company had "achieved several major product and regulatory milestones that position us well to evolve from a crypto company into a markets company."
This framing aligns with Coinbase’s strategy of positioning listed crypto exchanges as multi-asset venues built on a cryptocurrency foundation.
However, the arithmetic behind this strategy is complex. Gemini priced its IPO at $28 per share in September 2025, valuing the exchange at approximately $3.3 billion and raising $425 million. Eight months later, the stock has largely traded below its IPO price, and Thursday’s $5.26 close left the company valued at roughly a fifth of its listing valuation.
Pre-IPO filings revealed significant losses: $159 million in 2024 and $283 million in the first half of 2025.
The founders’ placement serves two purposes. It is both a capital raise and a mechanical vote that the exchange’s intrinsic value aligns closer to its IPO price than its recent market price, underpinned by the asset Gemini is built upon. The broader market’s response in the coming quarters will determine if this view is shared.