Joining the slew of cryptocurrency exchanges that have completed investment rounds in recent months, New York-based cryptocurrency exchange Gemini this week announced the close of a US$400 million funding round led by Morgan Creek Digital, bringing the company’s valuation to US$7.1 billion.
Fast facts
- Investors in the funding round — which was Gemini’s first-ever outside financing — included private equity firm 10T and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Gemini intends to use the fresh capital for product and market expansion, according to a company announcement.
- Launched in 2015 by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twins who had sued Mark Zuckerberg over the ownership of Facebook, Gemini has taken a compliance-centric approach and the ethos of “asking for permission, not forgiveness.” The company is a New York trust company regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
- The company also operates in the United Kingdom with an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license from the Financial Conduct Authority and in Singapore with an exemption for holding a license as part of transitional arrangements under the city-state’s Payment Services Act. Earlier this year, Gemini announced plans to expand its Asia-Pacific operations with satellite offices in Australia and Hong Kong.
- Gemini is currently ranked the 11th cryptocurrency exchange, according to CoinGecko’s trust score. The exchange saw US$482 million in 24-hour trading volume, according to CoinGecko data. In comparison, the top two cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Coinbase saw 24-hour trading volumes of US$39 billion and US$8.9 billion respectively.
- Gemini’s capital raise is the latest in a growing list of cryptocurrency exchanges securing investment capital amid the exponential growth of cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFT) and the metaverse this year. In July, crypto derivatives exchange FTX closed a massive US$900 million series B investment round with a US$18 billion valuation. This was quickly followed up just three months later with a US$420,690,000 Series B-1 funding round, bringing FTX’s valuation to US$25 billion.