Chapter 5: Gemini (cryptocurrency exchange)

Gemini Trust Company, LLC, also known simply as Gemini, is a cryptocurrency exchange and custodian bank based in the United States. 2014 marked the year that Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss established the company.

In June of 2013, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss made the announcement that they will be launching Gemini, and the venture went live on October 25, 2015. In order to make the process of purchasing and storing Bitcoin easier, Gemini implemented a sophisticated system that included private keys and environments that were protected by passwords. An October 2015 charter for a limited purpose trust was issued by the New York Department of Financial Services to Gemini, which the company currently possesses. After that, Gemini started expanding the range of financial services it provides, some of which include support for FIX and API.

Gemini was granted permission to operate as the first regulated Ethereum exchange situated in the United States, according to an announcement made by Governor Andrew Cuomo of the state of New York on May 5, 2016. Additionally, in 2016, Gemini made the announcement that it will permit users to withdraw Ethereum Classic (ETC) from the exchange. This was in response to a hard fork that occurred in the code of Ethereum.

Gemini made the announcement in October 2017 that it will permit registered customers to withdraw Bitcoin Cash from the exchange, assuming that they had a balance available on the exchange prior to the hard fork that occurred in August of 2017.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) started using Gemini to settle its Bitcoin futures contracts in December of 2017. Gemini is a cryptocurrency exchange. As a result of CBOE's partnership with Gemini, the dollar-denominated auction price that Gemini offers can be utilized for these contracts. CBOE made the announcement that they would no longer be listing Bitcoin futures in March of 2019.

The provision of "Block Trading" was initiated by Gemini in April of 2018. By allowing users of Gemini to purchase and sell huge amounts of digital assets outside of Gemini's continuous order books, Block Trading creates an extra liquidity mechanism that can be utilized when trading in larger volumes. Additionally in the month of April, Gemini started utilizing the SMARTS technology developed by NASDAQ in order to monitor trades and reduce instances of fraudulent behavior and price manipulation on its exchange. Gemini became the first licensed exchange to offer trading and custody services for Zcash (ZEC) on their platform after the New York Department of Financial Services announced on May 14, 2018, that it had granted approval for Gemini to offer Zcash (ZEC) on their platform. Gemini announced on September 10, 2018, that it has gained regulatory permission from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for a new product called the Gemini dollar (GUSD), and that it will begin trading the coin on the same day. The product was defined by Gemini as a stablecoin, which means that it is pegged to the American dollar at a ratio of one to one. An announcement was made on October 3, 2018, stating that Gemini has successfully received digital asset insurance that would cover tokens and coins that were housed on its exchange. Underwriting for the insurance policy was handled by a group of underwriters from all over the world, and the insurance policy had been arranged by Aon, a public risk consulting firm based in London.

During the month of November 2019, the Gemini Trust Company acquired Nifty Gateway for an amount that was not revealed. One of the marketplaces for NFTs is called Nifty Gateway. The NFT marketplace aims to operate as a custodian for a wide variety of assets, including as property deeds, passports, commodities, collectibles, gaming characters, movies, music, and event tickets, among other things.

Gemini announced in May 2020 that it would be forming a relationship with Samsung, which would allow users of Samsung smartphones to link their Samsung Blockchain Wallets to their Gemini accounts in order to monitor their balances and transfer cryptocurrency.

At the beginning of February 2021, Gemini made the announcement that Gemini Earn, in collaboration with Genesis, a cryptocurrency broker, will provide a return of 7.4% on deposits made by customers.

It was in November 2021 when Gemini was successful in raising an investment of $400 million, which resulted in the New York-based parent business, Gemini Space Station, LLC, being valued at $7.1 billion.

Gemini was accused of misrepresenting its exchange and futures contracts during meetings with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 2017. The CFTC filed a lawsuit against Gemini on June 2, 2022, based on the allegations that the business had made during those meetings. In addition to monetary sanctions, the lawsuit seeks to prevent Gemini and its affiliates from engaging in the trading of commodities and obtaining more investments. Additionally, on June 2, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss made the announcement that they would be laying off ten percent of the company's workforce. They cited a "contraction phase" in the cryptocurrency business that is more commonly referred to as "crypto winter."

Gemini Trust Company was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 12, 2023, with the unregistered offer and sale of securities to retail investors through the Gemini Earn crypto asset loan program. The charges originated from the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the same action, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also filed charges against Genesis Global Capital, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group. Genesis Global Capital was responsible for managing over $900 million in investor funds belonging to 340,000 Gemini Earn customers. Gemini Earn eventually went out of business in January 2023, after Genesis' decision in November 2022 to stop processing withdrawals. Both Gemini and Genesis are being targeted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in an effort to get permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains along with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties.

Genesis Global Holdco made the announcement on February 6, 2023, that they had reached a preliminary arrangement not just with Digital Currency Group but also with creditors of Genesis Global Capital, which included Gemini. The restructuring and recovery agreement will receive a contribution of "up to $100 million in cash" from Gemini.

The announcement that Dublin, Ireland would serve as the location for Gemini's headquarters in Europe was made by the firm in the month of May 2023. Gemini, on the other hand, relocated its European headquarters from Dublin to Malta in January 2025, noting differences in the regulatory landscape of the present day.

During the month of January 2024, Gemini was granted crypto registration in France, which enabled the company to begin offering services within the country.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) of the United States reached a settlement with the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini in January 2025 for the amount of $5 million. The settlement was reached in response to charges that Gemini had made deceptive representations more than seven years earlier regarding the potential for price manipulation of a bitcoin futures contract. In the year 2022, the CFTC filed a lawsuit against Gemini. Allegations were made that it had misled the official in the United States.

Against Gemini and the digital asset businesses Digital Currency Group and Genesis Global Capital, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit on October 19, 2023. Other defendants in the case included Genesis Global Capital. The complaint focused on Gemini make, a program offered by Gemini that promised consumers a secure way to make high-interest earnings. The lawsuit said that Gemini had misled investors about the risks associated with a loan service that it conducted in conjunction with Genesis. According to James, an estimated 230,000 investors had their money stolen as a result of the operation. James demanded that Gemini and Genesis pay him more than three billion dollars in damages.

Following their bankruptcy petition, Genesis reached a settlement in February of 2024. As a component of the settlement, Genesis is required to return assets to investors and pay $21 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The agreement was finalized in March of 2024.

Gemini reached a settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services on March 1, 2024, regarding allegations of unsafe practices related to its partnership with Genesis Global Capital, which has since gone bankrupt. As part of the agreement, Gemini agreed to pay a fine of $37 million and refund at least $1.1 billion to users of its Earn program, which had been suspended.

The greatest obstacle that the website has faced is maintaining its online presence during periods of exceptionally high traffic, which is a situation that is rather typical for any website that is seeing an unusually large volume of visitors. As an illustration, on November 28, 2017, both Gemini and Coinbase had a crash that lasted for several hours. A "504 gateway time-out" warning was displayed on Gemini, and the status page displayed the following statement: "Systems are currently experiencing degraded performance." Following that, this statement was also made available on the Gemini Blog. There have been other scaling challenges that we have faced in the past, and this one...