Despite facing regulatory challenges in the US, the Winklevoss twins are expanding Gemini’s offerings to non-US residents. Their new service, targeting retail and institutional traders, will exclude users from the UK and EU.
The Gemini Foundation, a highly anticipated non-US derivatives platform, launched on May 1st for customers in 29 available jurisdictions, including Singapore, Hong Kong, India, and others.
At launch, the platform offers BTC perpetual contracts denominated in Gemini dollars (GUSD) with up to 100x leverage. ETH/GUSD perpetual contracts will be launched in the coming weeks.
Regulatory Headwinds in the US
Gemini has long worked with US regulators, receiving a trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services in 2015. However, it faced operational challenges when sued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 2022 for allegedly making “false and misleading statements” regarding the first US-regulated Bitcoin futures contract deployment in 2017. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also charged Gemini with the unregistered sale of securities for its Gemini Earn lending service.
Despite this, the offshore division marks Gemini’s first product outside the US, and it is a crucial stage for the company as it expands globally. The Winklevoss twins still hope to launch a derivatives product in the US.
Asia Pivot
Gemini is also pivoting to Asia, with expansion in Singapore and plans to set up a new engineering hub in India. The newly-formed team, headed by Gemini Asia Pacific’s new CEO, Pravjit Tiwana, will develop next-generation web and mobile user experiences and introduce feature sets for NFT and crypto marketplaces.
