As the CFTC and Gemini work together to seek a court's reversal of a 2025 settlement, one of the agency’s former chairs said the public “deserves a better explanation.” A former chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) responded to the agency’s move to vacate a $5 million settlement with cryptocurrency company Gemini. In a Wednesday motion filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the CFTC joined the Gemini Trust Company in seeking relief from the judgment of a case initially filed in June 2022. The company reached a $5 million settlement with the CFTC in January 2025 while the agency was under former US President Joe Biden. “[T]he CFTC’s action in reversing itself on a settled case is extraordinarily unusual,” Tim Massad, a former CFTC chair and research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, told Cointelegraph. “The explanation seems to be that the staff got it wrong, not that the law was unclear.” According to the CFTC’s motion, the agency sought relief based on claims that a whistleblower was found “not to be credible” and evidence was concealed by the commission’s previous leadership. The motion alleged that the whistleblower, Gemini’s former chief operating officer, made false statements related to the company’s Bitcoin futures pre-certification review. The CFTC’s complaint against Gemini included allegations that the company reported inflated trading activity and volumes, misrepresenting user demand. “Based on the CFTC’s comprehensive review, the CFTC concurs that there were significant deficiencies in [the Division of Enforcement’s] evidence and the Complaint should not have been filed,” said the filing. Amended motion by CFTC filed in SDNY on Thursday. PACER