Envisioned as a hybrid of a digital and fiat currency exchange, Gemini Trust Company LLC (or simply, the Gemini exchange) is a product of two successful investors – the twin-brothers Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss. The Gemini exchange, situated in the United States, provides cryptocurrency custodial services and has a BitLicense by the New York State. Since its launch, Gemini has stood out as one of the most reputable and secure trading platforms, offering transactions in both fiat currency and cryptocurrency.
Moreover, Gemini offers two separate exchange platforms – one for experienced investors and active traders (the Active Trader Platform), while the other one is service-oriented for novice traders.
But, what are the origins of this cryptocurrency initiative, where is it located, what services does it provide, and, most importantly, what distinguishes it from other crypto trading platforms? Read on to find out.
The Gemini Cryptocurrency Project
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, aka the Winklevoss twins, formed Gemini in June 2013. However, the company officially launched on October 25, 2015. Following that date, the exchange platform began expanding its financial services, including API and FIX support for its users.
Designed to facilitate Bitcoin exchange, the Gemini exchange incorporates a sophisticated technology solution for cryptocurrency trading that incorporates the use of private keys and password-protected authentication and verification of both user and transaction data, which translates into a highly secured platform.
With the ‘security first’ motto, the designers of the Gemini exchange platform employ their superior developer skills into the four main pillars of the process of creating a superior product: the product itself, security, licensing, and compliance.
Security and Licensing
Gemini comes on top of the list of most secure crypto brokers worldwide, alongside the Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, and Bitstamp crypto exchanges. This New York trust company is regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services. The NYDFS routinely examines the Gemini exchange and conducts cybersecurity checks.
Gemini uses an offline cold storage solution for the bulk of its digital assets. Because the coins are kept offline, they are safe from potential cyber-attacks. This exchange platform also integrates the strong two-factor authentication (2FA) protocol for enhanced data security and a more efficient data verification procedure.
Compliance Standards
The Gemini exchange is the world’s first cryptocurrency brokerage to adhere to Service Organization Control (SOC 1 and SOC 2) standards in order to increase client confidence in their services, as well as to achieve greater transparency in transactions conducted on the Gemini platform.
More specifically, the SOC1 is an internal audit whose report aims to assure customers that the controlling systems Gemini Trust Company, LLC employs are reliable and developed with customer safety as a priority. Also, this standard ensures that the users of the Gemini exchange platform don’t have a detrimental influence on their accounting records at a given point in time.
The SOC2 compliance standard, on the other hand, sets Trust Services Criteria for data security that outsourcing firms must meet over a period of time. Namely, businesses must secure any sensitive data from unauthorized access, therefore protecting the platform from any damage caused by a cyber assault. In addition, the input data must be handled quickly and securely.
Furthermore, data processing integrity must be maintained as it’s used in various system activities. Finally, to ensure the best possible user experience, the security and privacy of both user and transaction data must be gathered, released, and kept using the most sophisticated online data protection measures.
Gemini Exchange Products
To begin with, the Gemini exchange makes it simple to research the crypto market, buy bitcoin and other cryptos, and build a portfolio. This prominent exchange also offers a number of products to enable a more convenient trading process for all crypto investors. Some of the most popular ones include:
Gemini Earn – You may earn up to 8.05% APY on your cryptocurrencies, including stable coins, with Gemini Earn. After you register an account, you may buy any amount of coins and immediately register with Gemini Earn to begin earning interest on your crypto balance.
Gemini Credit Card – With each purchase made with the Gemini Credit Card, you may earn rewards in any of your favorite cryptos. It might be the only credit card that instantly transfers your cryptocurrency rewards. This means that the coins you earn are deposited into your Gemini account the moment you swipe the card, there’s no delay.
Gemini Wallet – All of the cryptos featured on this exchange are supported by Gemini’s safe and secure wallet infrastructure. The Gemini wallet is one of the safest ways to store your funds, thanks to industry-leading security features.
Gemini Mobile – This exchange offers a practical mobile app for its traders who want to invest on the go. The Gemini mobile app allows cryptocurrency investors to use all of the features available on the exchange’s platform from the convenience of their smartphones, which run on both Android and iOS operating systems.Gemini Stable Coin
It’s become common practice for a blockchain platform to have its native coin, and Gemini is not an exception. The platform offers the Gemini dollar (GUSD) as a means for providing higher liquidity to the platform, as well as enabling crypto traders to earn high yields in DeFi. Designed as a stable coin, GUSD is built upon the basis of an ERC-20 standard that is deployed on the Ethereum blockchain platform.
This stable coin launched back in 2018 is backed by a fiat currency, i.e. the US dollar. Since Gemini’s native coin is tied to the value of the United States dollar, the BPM Accounting and Consulting conducts independent audits on the value of the GUSD on a regular basis, an approach intended to ensure that the value of the Gemini dollar does not diverge from the value of the US dollar.
What’s the Location of the Gemini Cryptocurrency Exchange?
Despite the fact it was created to primarily service its US-based traders, Gemini is also operational in over 50 other countries. Located in Midtown Manhattan, New York, USA, this trading platform also offers its services to the citizens of the United States, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Canada.
What Services Does the Gemini Exchange Offer?
The Winklevoss twins envisioned an exchange that combines a digital currency fiduciary custody role with a sophisticated trading platform that works with regular currencies. It is particularly aimed at market participants who are looking to trade massive volumes of Bitcoin (BTC) and appreciate the security of knowing that their investments are stored safely and safeguarded by cutting-edge technical solutions.
Apart from BTC, the Gemini exchange supports many additional cryptocurrencies and has over 90 trading pairings with fiat currencies. This exchange platform also supports crypto-to-crypto trading. The most popular altcoins listed on the Winklevoss twins’ exchange include Ethereum (ETH), zCash (ZEC), Orchid (OXT), Uniswap (UNI), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), 0x (ZRX), Chainlink (LINK), Storj (STORJ), PAX Gold (PAXG), Amp (AMP), Finance (YFI), Dai (DAI), Balancer (BAL), Ren (REN), etc.
Combining fiat currencies with crypto assets, Gemini allows users to trade crypto in many different trading pairs. The majority of the pairings include the United States dollar (USD) and Bitcoin (BTC) as primary cryptocurrencies for trading.
While USD is the most often used coin pair backing, pairings are also available in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), BitcoinCash (BCH), and Dai (DAI). Users can send and receive USD from and to their bank accounts. In addition, they can buy Bitcoin and many other altcoins on the Gemini exchange via wire transfers or by using their credit card. While the highest allowable funding limitation of a Gemini account is $500 and $15,000 on a monthly basis, the daily withdrawal limitation is up to $100,000.
In addition, custody of non-fungible tokens has just been added to the ever-expanding range of services offered by the Gemini exchange platform. It is anticipated that these NFTs would be completely decentralized.
On the downside, the trading fees on this platform are relatively high. In addition, some of the most popular crypto coins are not listed for trade on this exchange, such as Ripple and Cardano.
Gemini Exchange Apps
The Gemini cryptocurrency exchange can be conveniently accessed via a mobile app or the official website. The Gemini exchange app can be used with all portable devices and desktops that operate on Android/iOS systems. With its simple, user-friendly design, it’s a useful tool for trading or tracking crypto market trends and volatility or just checking the charting, even in the hands of a novice in this field.
Users of the Gemini exchange can also sign up for Gemini’s Custody Service that, in essence, is a digital wallet in which the largest portion of the digital assets is stored offline in a backup storing system. Since this storage is physically isolated from every other network, it’s a highly secure storing solution for your digital coins and tokens.
A Few Words Before You Go…
Among the vast number of online exchanges, the Winklevoss twins’ Gemini exchange is considered to be one of the most reputable and trustworthy exchanges that offer trading with both fiat money and cryptocurrency. Although Gemini was primarily intended for BTC transactions, it now enables numerous trading pairings by combining fiat currencies with crypto.
The Gemini exchange platform offers versatile services to its users. Apart from supporting the traditional trading pairs that include fiat vs cryptocurrencies, it also facilitates crypto-to-crypto trading. With a simple, user-friendly design, the Gemini exchange app is a convenient tool for trading or tracking crypto market trends and price fluctuations.
By implementing some of the highest security mechanisms and banking standards aimed at online protection of sensitive data, the Gemini exchange is considered one of the safest online trading platforms in the crypto ecosystem. This licensed crypto exchange incorporates the 2FA protocol, as well as the SOC1 and SOC2 online safety standards onto its trading platform for increased security of all input data.
The security investments by the team of Gemini’s developers are more than obvious in the selection of the supreme technological solutions, which not only ranked this Ethereum based platform among the best ones for crypto trading, but it also appears to have an even brighter future with its constant development in the security realm.