Winklevoss twins refunded for donating Bitcoin to Trump above the legal limit

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the billionaire twin brothers who founded the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, received partial refunds after their donation of Bitcoin (BTC) to the Donald Trump presidential campaign exceeded the legal limit, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

Also read: Winklevoss twins donate $2M to Trump in effort to fight Biden

On Thursday, the brothers separately announced on X, formerly Twitter, a donation of $1 million in Bitcoin (15.47 BTC) each to the campaign. The donations exceeded the maximum $844,600 that the Trump committee could accept per person under federal law, according to the report.

Winklevoss duo accuses Biden of fighting crypto

The amount that exceeded the limit was repaid to the Winklevoss duo, the report said, citing a campaign official. It is not clear whether the committee, which received the donation on behalf of the presidential hopeful Trump, reimbursed the money in Bitcoin or cash.

“President Donald J. Trump is the pro-Bitcoin, pro-crypto, and pro-business choice,” Tyler Winklevoss wrote in a post on X, explaining the donation.

He accused the Biden administration of having “openly declared war against crypto.” He said the administration has “weaponized multiple government agencies to bully, harass, and sue the good actors in our industry in an effort to destroy it.”

The $2 million Winklevoss donation comes after Donald Trump, who has recently positioned himself as a Bitcoin and cryptocurrency advocate, criticized efforts by the Democrats to regulate the sector during a fundraiser with tech executives in San Francisco earlier this month.

“Crypto innovators and others in the technology sector are under attack from Biden and Democrats,” said Brian Hughes, a senior adviser to the campaign, told Bloomberg News. “While Biden stifles innovation with more regulation and higher taxes, President Trump is ready to encourage American leadership in this and other emerging technologies.”

Trump’s complicated relationship with Bitcoin

Trump has a complicated relationship with crypto. While he tended to affect markets during his first spell as US president between 2017 and 2021, he never pretended to like Bitcoin.

Also read: Trump vows to end Biden’s crypto crackdown if elected

“I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,” he tweeted in 2019. “Unregulated crypto assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity,” Trump added.

The tweet has since been deleted. Later that year, he called BTC “very dangerous.” More recently, he appears to have embraced Bitcoin.

Cryptopolitan Reporting by Jeffrey Gogo