Winklevoss Twins Tried to Give Away Gemini's USD Stablecoin In Global South, Nobody Wanted It
In a surprising development, entrepreneurs and founders of the Gemini crypto exchange, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss were unable to find anyone.. anyone at all... to accept their offer to give away $21 million worth of their Gemini U.S. Dollar stablecoin (GUSD) during recent campaigns to generate interest and increase market share in Turkey, Argentina, and Venezuela.
"We noticed a surge in demand for digital U.S. Dollar equivalents such as Tether in countries located in the Global South with currencies experiencing above average inflation. We wanted to make them aware of [GUSD] which we think is the superior stablecoin." Tyler told The Bugle. "Unfortunately, there was zero interest." Cameron replied, "even when we stressed our commitment to compliance with U.S. and their local laws as well as the 8% APY they could earn when we re-launch Gemini Earn later this year."
According to sources on the ground in Venezuela, where inflation ravaged the struggling South American economy to the tune of 190% in 2023, locals preferred Tether, transacted on the Tron network, over GUSD. One report quoted a resident of Caracas who said Tether was already accepted by most businesses in his surrounding neighborhood and worked fine. The resident reportedly had experience with GUSD in the past but lost most of it when the lending platform Celsius went bankrupt in 2022. "GUSD was slow and expensive when I tried it." He is quoted saying, "Even if it had a better user experience, GUSD is just really [retarded]."
Similar reports emerged from Argentina. "I don't trust those giant ass gringos", one native Brazilian living in Buenos Aires stated. "They are like all the other American businessmen selling snake oil to the Global South. As soon as their government cracks down on them for scamming American citizens, they try to prey on us because they think we're stupid. The cigarette companies did it, the narcotic pain killer manufactures did it too. In fact, Gemini hired the same guy the tobacco companies hired to sell Zyn to school kids last year. He was also the same guy who tried to sell us all the left over Juul pods when the U.S. outlawed those a few years ago."
Tyler and Cameron said they were currently at a crossroads about where to go next with their crypto exchange business now that regulators have made it harder and more expensive to scam U.S. residents. "We talked about going back to the basics and just focusing on increasing Bitcoin adoption" Tyler remarked, "but there isn't enough profit in that and we still owe a lot of people a lot of money after the Genesis bankruptcy. Until we pay off that debt we will continue to search for poor people with no better alternative than GUSD".
