And We’re Live!

We are excited to announce that Gemini has opened its doors to both individual and institutional customers. Trading officially begins on Thursday, October 8th at 9:30 a.m EDT / 6:30 a.m. PDT. If you haven’t done so already, you can create your account by going to the Gemini homepage and clicking on “Create Your Account”.

Some of you may be wondering what we’ve been up to since we first announced our plans for Gemini on January 23, 2015. That’s a great question — we have been hard at work building the four pillars of our business:

1) Product, 2) Security, 3) Licensing and 4) Compliance.

So was it worth the wait? We think so. As a bitcoin exchange we don’t always have the ability to “fail fast” or the freedom to “hack” our way through product development, security or licensing. When you are dealing with money — especially other people’s money — you simply cannot assemble the rocket ship mid-flight.

Meeting the high-water mark of banking compliance is no small task, especially for a startup, but we felt that doing so was crucial — Bitcoin is an island right now, and if we are going to build a bridge to the financial mainland, then Gemini must look and feel as safe, secure, and compliant as any other top tier financial institution in the world. This includes, among other things, creating a robust anti-money laundering (AML) program, strong internal controls and procedures, a comprehensive security program and maintaining significant capital reserves.

In short, we take licensing and compliance very seriously and think that asking for permission, rather than forgiveness is the right approach in this case — and we think our customers will agree. The end result is Gemini Trust Company LLC, a New York state limited liability trust company, which makes us a fiduciary, and allows us to accept both individual and institutional customers under New York Banking Law (unlike the BitLicense, which does not convey such fiduciary powers).

Initially, Gemini will be operating in 26 US states and in Washington, DC. We plan to expand our coverage area rapidly, so stay tuned.

Lastly, we speak for everyone on our team when we say that we couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve built over the past year and more excited to begin serving you, one Satoshi at a time.

Onward and Upward,

Cameron and Tyler