Cameron Winklevoss

Cameron Winklevoss is an American cryptocurrency executive who co-founded the digital asset exchange Gemini and who worked as the company’s president as of July 2026. 1 With his twin brother, Tyler Winklevoss, he became one of the largest right-of-center individual political donors of the 2026 election cycle, transferring bitcoin worth more than $30 million to committees supporting President Donald Trump and Republican candidates. 2 3 The Washington Post ranked the brothers among the biggest individual donors of the cycle. 4

Read More

At-A-Glance

Occupation: Donor
Born:

August 21, 1981

Occupation:

Cryptocurrency executive, investor, and political donor

Associations:

Gemini Space Station, Inc.; Winklevoss Capital Management

Contents

    Early Life and Education

    Cameron Winklevoss and his twin brother Tyler Winklevoss were born on August 21, 1981. Winklevoss graduated from Harvard University in 2004 with a degree in economics and later completed a Master of Business Administration degree at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. 5 He rowed competitively at Harvard and represented the United States alongside his brother in the men’s coxless pair at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, finishing sixth. 6

    ConnectU Litigation

    While undergraduates at Harvard University, the Winklevoss brothers and classmate Divya Narendra developed a social networking website called Harvard Connection, later renamed ConnectU, and recruited fellow student Mark Zuckerberg to write code for the project. The brothers later alleged that Zuckerberg had used the concept to build Facebook. The parties signed a mediated settlement in February 2008 under which the ConnectU founders received cash and Facebook stock valued at $65 million. The brothers afterward sought to void the agreement, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected that effort in an opinion issued on April 11, 2011. 7

    Business Career

    Cameron Winklevoss and his brother directed part of the settlement proceeds into the cryptocurrency bitcoin beginning in 2012 and formed Winklevoss Capital Management, a family investment firm that backed early-stage technology companies and that invested $100 million in Gemini in May 2026. 8 The brothers founded Gemini in 2014 as a digital asset exchange and custodian. As of July 2026, Cameron Winklevoss was the president of the company and his brother Tyler was the chief executive officer. 1

    On September 11, 2025, the business, then operating as Gemini Space Station, Inc., priced an initial public offering of 15,178,572 shares of Class A common stock at $28.00 per share, raising roughly $425 million. 9 The shares began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on September 12, 2025, under the ticker symbol GEMI at a valuation of approximately $3.3 billion. 10

    Political Contributions

    In June 2024, Cameron Winklevoss and his brother each donated approximately $1 million in bitcoin to Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign, a combined 30.94 bitcoin. Because the amounts exceeded the federal individual contribution limit of $844,600, $155,400 was refunded to each brother. 11 2

    On August 20, 2025, the brothers announced that they had transferred 188.4547 bitcoin, valued at approximately $21 million, to the Digital Freedom Fund, a political action committee registered with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on July 11, 2025. 2 12 The committee was organized to support Republican candidates in the 2026 midterm elections and to press for cryptocurrency legislation, including a narrow market-structure bill that would limit dual regulation of digital assets by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a statutory ban on a United States central bank digital currency, and liability protections for software developers. 2

    An FEC filing disclosed on July 21, 2026, recorded a contribution of bitcoin valued at $5,006,604.47 from Cameron Winklevoss to Make America Great Again Inc., a super PAC supporting President Trump, on June 19, 2026. His brother Tyler contributed $5,011,860.44 on the same date, and the super PAC liquidated the assets through Gemini’s trading platform. 3 13 The contributions were made 23 days after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission joined Gemini in asking a federal judge to set aside portions of a 2025 enforcement settlement that had required the company to pay $5 million. The filings contain no indication that the agency coordinated with the brothers. 14 15

    In August 2025, Winklevoss and his brother participated in a private placement in American Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency mining company co-founded by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump that subsequently merged with Gryphon Digital Mining and listed on the Nasdaq. 16

    Regulatory Matters

    Gemini Earn, a lending program that Gemini operated with Genesis Global Capital, drew roughly $900 million from about 340,000 customers before Genesis halted withdrawals in November 2022 and filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2023. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Gemini and Genesis in January 2023, alleging that the program constituted an unregistered offering of securities. 17 New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) sued Gemini, Genesis, and the Digital Currency Group in October 2023 and expanded the claim to roughly $3 billion in February 2024, asserting that Gemini had withheld internal analyses showing that Genesis loans were under-secured and heavily concentrated with Sam Bankman-Fried‘s Alameda Research. 18

    Gemini settled with the New York attorney general’s office in 2024, returning about $50 million in digital assets to more than 230,000 Earn customers, at least 29,000 of whom were New York residents. 19 A federal judge dismissed the Securities and Exchange Commission case with prejudice on January 23, 2026, after the parties filed a stipulation. 17

    Contact InfluenceWatch to report errors, suggest edits, or provide tips for additional profiles.

    Contact Us

    Mentioned in this Article

    References

    1. Gemini Space Station, Inc. “About — Our Executive Team.” Gemini. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://www.gemini.com/about.
    2. Kuhn, Daniel. “Gemini’s Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss donate 188 bitcoins to pro-Trump PAC.” The Block, August 20, 2025. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://www.theblock.co/post/367689/geminis-tyler-and-cameron-winklevoss-donate-188-bitcoins-to-pro-trump-pac.
    3. Di Salvo, Mathew. “Winklevoss Twins Donated $10 Million From Bitcoin Sale to Trump Super PAC.” Bitcoin Magazine, July 22, 2026. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/winklevoss-twins-donated-bitcoin-to-trump.
    4. “These are the biggest individual donors in the 2026 election cycle.” Washington Post, June 25, 2026. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/interactive/2026/06/25/these-are-biggest-individual-donors-2026-election-cycle/.
    5. “Cameron Winklevoss.” Forbes. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://www.forbes.com/profile/cameron-winklevoss/.
    6. “Cameron Winklevoss.” International Olympic Committee. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://www.olympics.com/en/athletes/cameron-winklevoss.
    7. Winklevoss v. Zuckerberg, No. 08-16745 (9th Cir. April 11, 2011). United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2011/04/11/08-16745.pdf.
    8. Sigalos, MacKenzie. “Gemini surges after Winklevoss Capital Fund invests $100 million in the crypto exchange.” CNBC, May 14, 2026. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/14/gemini-surges-after-winklevoss-capital-invests-100-million-in-the-crypto-exchange.html.
    9. “Gemini Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering.” Gemini Space Station, Inc., September 11, 2025. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://investors.gemini.com/news-releases/news-release-details/gemini-announces-pricing-initial-public-offering.
    10. Sigalos, MacKenzie. “Gemini, the Winklevoss’ crypto exchange, pops more than 14% in Nasdaq debut.” CNBC, September 12, 2025. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/12/gemini-the-winklevoss-crypto-exchange-pops-in-nasdaq-debut.html.
    11. Ray, Siladitya. “Billionaire Winklevoss Twins Donate $2 Million In Bitcoin To Support Donald Trump.” Forbes, June 21, 2024. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2024/06/21/billionaire-winklevoss-twins-donate-2-million-worth-of-bitcoin-to-support-donald-trump/.
    12. “Digital Freedom Fund — Committee C00911610.” Federal Election Commission. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00911610/?tab=about-committee.
    13. “Make America Great Again Inc., Schedule A itemized receipts, Form 3X.” Federal Election Commission, July 21, 2026. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00892471/2000587/sa/ALL.
    14. “Winklevoss twins gave Trump’s super PAC $10 million 23 days after CFTC joined Gemini relief bid.” CryptoSlate, July 2026. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://cryptoslate.com/winklevoss-twins-gave-trumps-super-pac-10-million-23-days-after-cftc-joined-gemini-relief-bid/.
    15. Schoenberg, Tom. “CFTC Moves to Undo Settlement That Had Gemini Pay $5 Million.” Bloomberg, May 28, 2026. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-28/cftc-moves-to-undo-settlement-that-had-gemini-paying-5-million.
    16. “Winklevoss twins back Trump sons’ Bitcoin mining firm as Gemini pursues IPO.” The Block, August 7, 2025. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://www.theblock.co/post/366065/winklevoss-twins-back-trump-sons-bitcoin-mining-firm-as-gemini-pursues-ipo-bloomberg.
    17. “SEC drops lawsuit against Winklevoss twins’ Gemini crypto exchange.” TechCrunch, January 24, 2026. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/24/sec-drops-lawsuit-against-winklevoss-twins-gemini-crypto-exchange.
    18. Roush, Tyler. “New York Expands Lawsuit Against Gemini And DCG—Claiming $3 Billion In Alleged Crypto Fraud Scheme.” Forbes, February 9, 2024. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2024/02/09/new-york-expands-lawsuit-against-gemini-and-dcg-claiming-3-billion-in-alleged-crypto-fraud-scheme/.
    19. “Attorney General James Recovers $50 Million from Crypto Firm Gemini for Defrauded Investors.” Office of the New York State Attorney General, 2024. Accessed July 30, 2026. https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2024/attorney-general-james-recovers-50-million-crypto-firm-gemini-defrauded.