Today, Earn users received $2.18 billion of their digital assets in kind. These initial distributions represent:

- 97% of digital assets owed to Earn users 
- $1 billion more than when Genesis halted withdrawals
- A 232% recovery from when Genesis halted withdrawals

*The notional dollar value of digital assets returned to Earn customers is based on digital asset prices as of May 28, 2024 at 10 am ET.* 

### An Unprecedented Recovery

This represents an unprecedented recovery among crypto bankruptcies, as well as bankruptcies in general, and follows our previous announcement that we reached a settlement in principle with Genesis and other creditors in the Genesis Bankruptcy, which will result in all Earn users receiving 100% of their digital assets back in kind.

This means, for example, that if you had lent one bitcoin in the Earn program, you will receive one bitcoin back. And it means that you will receive any and all appreciation of your assets since you lent them into the Earn program. 

In order to ensure this successful resolution, Gemini has also contributed $50 million to the Earn users’ recovery.

Today’s initial distributions represent approximately 97% of the digital assets in the Earn program. You can expect to receive your remaining asset balance within the next 12 months.

### Moving Forward

We are thrilled that we have been able to achieve this recovery for you. We recognize the hardship caused by this lengthy process and appreciate your continued support and patience throughout this process.

Finally, it’s important to note that the Genesis bankruptcy was not a crypto problem. It was old-fashioned financial fraud compounded by a lack of regulatory clarity. To that end, we will continue to fight for clear rules and guidance for our industry that foster both innovation and consumer protection. And we will win this fight. The future is bright.

Onward and Upward,

Cameron + Tyler

Gemini Earn Users Receive $2.18 Billion of Their Digital Assets in Kind — a 232% Recovery

We are excited to announce that __Pravjit Tiwana__ has been named __CEO__ of __Gemini Asia Pacific (APAC)__. Pravjit will be taking on these responsibilities in addition to his role as Gemini’s Global Chief Technology Officer (CTO). As APAC CEO, he will be responsible for launching and expanding our products and services in the region, leading the go-to-market (GTM) organization (business development, marketing, and evangelism), and owning PnL for the region.  

Gemini has big plans for international growth this year in APAC. This initially involves building out product and engineering teams in India ([see our careers page here](https://www.gemini.com/careers-india)). We will also be expanding our business teams in both India and Singapore to execute GTM strategies focused on growing our individual and institutional customer base in the region. We believe that crypto and Web3 products will continue to have a strong growth trajectories in APAC. Crypto knows no boundaries, and that is why Gemini is a global company.

[Pravjit joined Gemini 15 months ago as our CTO](https://www.gemini.com/blog/we-welcome-pravjit-tiwana-as-our-chief-technology-officer). Under his leadership, Gemini’s technology organization has continued to evolve into a world-class product and engineering organization. With our customers at the center of everything we do, we have succeeded in shipping a tremendous amount of features and products to them with greater speed and reliability than ever before. We believe the most critical metric in innovation is time-to-value — how long it takes to turn an idea into value for our customers. Therefore, speed and a sense of urgency are the cornerstones of our culture. Pravjit has helped shape and foster this culture throughout our technology organization and we’re excited for him to bring this same energy to the APAC region.

Please join us in congratulating Pravjit on his expanded role as both Global CTO of Gemini and CEO of Gemini APAC.

Onward and Upward,

Cameron + Tyler

Pravjit Tiwana Named CEO of Gemini Asia Pacific (APAC)

From day one, Gemini has prioritized the security of our customers’ assets. We never have and never will compromise on that point. As the crypto ecosystem emerges from infancy into adolescence we are more confident than ever that *__asking for permission, not for forgiveness__* will continue to be the central pillar of how we run our business. 

It has been a tough couple of days for our industry. Our hearts go out to all those impacted by recent events at FTX. We are all working together to build a brighter future and moments like these are painful.

For the avoidance of doubt, __Gemini has no exposure to FTT tokens or Alameda and no material exposure to FTX__.

### Gemini is a Full-Reserve Exchange and Custodian

Gemini is a full-reserve exchange and custodian. This means that __all customer funds held on Gemini are held 1:1 and available for withdrawal at any time.__ 

Gemini holds customer fiat currency in accounts that are segregated from our business, operating, and reserve bank accounts established specifically for the benefit of Gemini customers. __We do not do anything with your fiat funds unless explicitly authorized and directed to do so by you.__

Gemini holds customer digital assets in accounts that are segregated from our assets. __We do not do anything with your digital assets unless explicitly authorized and directed to do so by you.__

In addition to being a full-reserve platform, Gemini Trust Company, LLC is a fiduciary and qualified custodian under New York Banking Law and is licensed by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). NYDFS imposes certain excess capital requirements and compliance standards for all assets held on Gemini. __At any given time, Gemini is required to hold capital in excess of customer deposits and must report any material changes in this capital to its regulator.__

### Gemini is Highly Regulated

Since its inception eight years ago, Gemini has worked with regulatory stakeholders and lawmakers to help shape thoughtful regulation that fosters both consumer protection and innovation. We will continue to do this work. We have spent considerable time applying for and becoming licensed and regulated in various jurisdictions across the world. This is not the easier path (it is expensive and time consuming) but we believe it is the right one.

Gemini holds many licenses globally, including a New York trust license, state money transmitter licenses (or the statutory equivalent), an E-Money License from the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK, an E-Money License from the Central Bank of Ireland, and more.

Related to our licenses, Gemini must undergo annual audits of our financial statements and is subject to bank examinations conducted by NYDFS. We are also [SOC 1 and SOC 2 compliant](https://www.gemini.com/blog/gemini-completes-soc-1-type-2-and-soc-2-type-2-examinations-leading-crypto).

Ten years ago, we bought our first bitcoin on Mt. Gox. Those Wild West days informed us with regard to what needed to change. We built Gemini to be this change. We look forward to working with everyone in our industry to continue to build trust in this new magical frontier and unlock its ultimate promise.

Onward and Upward.

Cameron and Tyler

Gemini Is Built on Trust, Safety, and Compliance: Ask For Permission, Not For Forgiveness

Today, we are thrilled to announce that Gemini will expand its Greater Seattle Area presence in 2023, with plans to increase the number of employees based in our Bellevue downtown office from 28 to over 125. There are currently 100+ [open roles](https://www.gemini.com/careers) in the region spanning product and engineering. 

“The Pacific Northwest has long been established as a home base for best-in-class innovative tech companies, and we are inspired by the opportunity to tap into talent in the region. Gemini is a destination for top talent that wants to build the future of digital assets and web3,” said Cameron Winklevoss, President of Gemini. 

Our Seattle expansion comes as a number of senior leaders in the area have joined Gemini over the past year, including [Pravjit Tiwana](https://www.gemini.com/blog/we-welcome-pravjit-tiwana-as-our-chief-technology-officer) as Chief Technology Officer, [Jorge Vasquez](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jorgevasquez/) as VP of Engineering, and [Ajay Jaganathan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jagannathanajay/) as VP of Talent & People Operations. 

We founded Gemini in 2014 to create a simple, reliable, and elegant way for individuals and institutions to buy [bitcoin](https://www.gemini.com/prices/bitcoin). Over the past eight years our platform has grown to encompass web3 products, including [Nifty Gateway](https://www.gemini.com/nifty-gateway) — the world’s premiere NFT marketplace, the [Gemini Credit Card](https://www.gemini.com/credit-card)1 — which provides real-time crypto rewards every time you swipe2, [Gemini Staking](https://www.gemini.com/staking), and the [Gemini dollar](https://www.gemini.com/dollar) stablecoin. 

We continue to invest heavily in building scalable infrastructure for web3, including modernizing archaic banking systems in the fields of know-your-customer (KYC), identity, fraud, analytics, security, and payments. We are also building a variety of new pragmatic web3 and Neobanking products that we will launch in 2023.

Our expansion in Seattle is another decisive step on our mission to unlock the next era of financial, creative and personal freedom. If you are interested in joining our mission, please contact us at [careers@gemini.com](mailto:careers@gemini.com)! 

Onward and Upward!

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss

1 A Gemini Mastercard® issued by WebBank. 
2 Some exclusions apply in which rewards are deposited when the transaction posts. Subject to [Rewards Program Terms](https://www.gemini.com/legal/credit-card-rewards-agreement#section-welcome-to-the-gemini-credit-card-crypto-rewards-program-the-rewards-program).

Gemini Announces Seattle Area Expansion Plans for 2023

As Gemini continues its mission to provide safe, secure, and innovative crypto products and services to our customers, we look to demonstrated leaders to help us on this journey. To that end, we are thrilled to announce that Maria Filipakis and Matthew Homer have been appointed to the company’s Board of Managers. 

With experiences spanning state financial regulatory agencies, fintech, and cybersecurity, Maria and Matthew will provide expert perspectives on our business and strategy as we continue to navigate the dynamic world of crypto. 

“Maria and Matt’s significant experience working to ensure the safety and soundness of the crypto markets will be incredibly additive to our current outstanding Board of Managers,” said Noah Perlman, Chief Operating Officer at Gemini. “Gemini has an eight-year track record of doing the right thing for our customers. Adding Maria and Matt to the Board demonstrates our continued dedication to growing the crypto ecosystem in a compliant and regulated way.” 

## Meet Maria Filipakis

Maria brings with her vast experience across the fields of fintech, cybersecurity, and insurance, having held leadership roles in both the public and private sectors. She is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Topside Group, a full-service consulting firm specializing in financial services and regulatory issues.

Maria was also the first Executive Deputy Superintendent of the Capital Markets Division at the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). In that role, she oversaw various teams consisting of lawyers, risk, and investment specialists, and examiners providing expertise in enterprise risk management, anti-money laundering controls, cybersecurity, and financial analysis for over 3,000 financial institutions regulated by the NYDFS.  

Among Maria’s many notable accomplishments at the NYDFS, she led the agency’s cybersecurity initiatives, from conducting industry-wide cybersecurity surveys and assessments, to revising the cyber examinations, and to drafting the critical cybersecurity regulation (Part 500), which has served as a blueprint for other federal and state regulators. 

Outside her work as a leading state financial regulator, Maria held various influential roles serving on the New York Governor’s Cyber Security Advisory Board, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors Emerging Payments Task Force, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Cybersecurity Task Force. 

## Meet Matthew Homer

Matthew also brings outstanding experience to the Gemini Trust Company board, having held public and private leadership roles across the fintech, crypto, and policy spheres. Following various roles in federal and state government, Matthew is currently Executive in Residence at Nyca Partners, a fintech venture capital firm. 

Prior to entering the venture capital space, Matthew was the first ever Executive Deputy Superintendent for the Research and Innovation Division at the New York Department of Financial Services. In this leadership role, he oversaw the agency’s strategic and policy efforts related to fintech broadly, including the Department’s crypto responsibilities. He also chaired the Conference of State Bank Supervisor’s FinTech Steering Group. 

Before joining NYDFS, Matthew led policy and research at Quovo, a New York company providing open banking functionality for the financial services ecosystem, leading up to the company’s acquisition by Plaid. He also worked across the federal government, including as a senior policy advisor for digital finance at U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and as a policy official at the FDIC where he focused on emerging technology and consumer protection. He has served in advisory roles to the United Nations, World Bank, Aspen Institute, and Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance. 

We are pleased to welcome Maria and Matthew to the Gemini Trust Company Board of Managers. Their wealth of experience across industries and regulatory agencies will undoubtedly provide our company with unparalleled insight into the ever-changing world of crypto as we continue on our mission to unlock the next era of financial, creative, and personal freedom.

Onward and Upward!

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss

Gemini Trust Company Welcomes Former NYDFS Regulators Maria Filipakis and Matthew Homer to Board of Managers

The following message was shared with Gemini employees this morning. 

Fellow Astronauts — we are writing to update you on a difficult decision that will impact a number of you and the overall size of our team. But first, we want to start by reiterating what we’ve said many times before and can’t be said enough — our people are our greatest asset. Without you, Gemini simply wouldn’t be here today. 

Your hard work and dedication has propelled Gemini to heights that would have been hard to imagine when we first started building eight years ago, in the Fall of 2014. You shape our culture, drive our innovation, and breathe life and energy into our products that have brought greater choice, independence, and opportunity to millions of people around the world.

The crypto revolution is well underway and its impact will continue to be profound. But its trajectory has been anything but gradual or predictable. Its path can best be described as punctuated equilibrium — periods of equilibrium or stasis that are punctuated by dramatic moments of hypergrowth, followed by sharp contractions that settle down to a new equilibrium that is higher than the one before. This is where we are now, in the contraction phase that is settling into a period of stasis — what our industry refers to as “crypto winter.” This has all been further compounded by the current macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil. We are not alone.

To that end, we have asked team leaders to ensure that they are focused only on products that are critical to our mission and assess whether their teams are right-sized for the current, turbulent market conditions that are likely to persist for some time. After much thought and consideration, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to part ways with approximately 10% of our workforce.

Next Steps

Impacted Astronauts will receive a calendar invite today for an individual conversation to provide information on the separation package and healthcare benefits we are providing. We have closed all of our physical offices today so that these conversations will be held remotely to protect the privacy of each impacted individual. Our highest priority throughout will be to treat everyone affected with compassion and respect.

Looking Ahead

Tomorrow, we will hold a company-wide standup with all remaining Astronauts to talk about the future ahead.

Today is a tough day, but one that will make Gemini better over the long run. Constraint is the mother of innovation and difficult times are a forcing function for focus, which is critical to the success of any startup. Every great company throughout history has faced similar challenges along the way and Gemini is no different. And as painful as this moment is, we ultimately see it as an opportunity to double-down on our strongest ideas and customer-centric products so that we may be the catalyst of innovation coming out of these leaner times that will help fuel the next cycle of crypto growth and adoption. We have never had more conviction in our people, our products, and our mission — to unlock the next era of financial, creative, and personal freedom for our customers. Amazing awaits. 

Onward and Upward,

Cameron + Tyler


A Message from Cameron & Tyler

Today, we are excited to welcome Pravjit Tiwana as our Chief Technology Officer!

Pravjit joins us from Amazon Web Services (AWS), where he was the General Manager of Edge Services, which includes Amazon CloudFront, AWS Edge Computing, and AWS Data Transfer Operations. Prior to 6+ years at AWS, Pravjit held product and engineering leadership roles at Microsoft and Disney.

As our Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Pravjit will lead our engineering and product teams and draw upon his deep experience building world-class engineering cultures with a bias for action. He will help us scale and deliver value to our customers with speed and reliability — so that we can continue to __unlock the next era of financial, creative, and personal freedom__ with our simple, reliable, and secure products and services.

In Pravjit’s own words, he decided to join Gemini because “I want to help build Web3 and the decentralized Metaverse. The promise is as big as the Internet itself and Gemini is well-positioned to help build and catalyze that future.”

Welcome to the team, Pravjit!

If you are interested in joining Pravjit and the Gemini mission, please review our Engineering openings on our [careers page](https://gemini.com/careers) – we’re hiring!

Onward and Upward,

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss

We Welcome Pravjit Tiwana as Our Chief Technology Officer 

Six years ago today, we launched Gemini with a vision for a simple, secure, and reliable bitcoin exchange. What we saw in Bitcoin and, more broadly, crypto were tools to empower the individual and fundamentally impact the future of finance. 

Now in 2021, crypto has become a global asset class with a market cap greater than one trillion dollars, a testament to the dedication and enthusiasm of millions of people around the world. At Gemini, we are proud to have contributed to the growth of our industry and are inspired by what the future holds. 

__From a Small New York City Office to a Global Brand__

We started with a small and close-knit founding team in a tiny office west of Madison Square Park, an area of New York City now known as “Crypto Alley.” In merely six years, Gemini has grown into a global crypto platform with almost 600 employees across three continents and eight offices. We’re motivated by our continued growth, with our London colleagues recently [celebrating their one year anniversary](https://www.gemini.com/blog/one-year-of-building-gemini-uk), and the Asia Pacific team building [Gemini’s momentum across the region](https://www.gemini.com/blog/geminis-apac-expansion-builds-global-momentum). 

Gemini’s global expansion mirrors the explosion of interest in crypto over the past six years. Launching initially as a one-asset exchange that just offered USD/BTC pairs, Gemini users can now buy, sell, and store [more than 50 cryptos](https://www.gemini.com/prices) including popular tokens like ether and Dogecoin, as well as the exciting cryptos powering the burgeoning decentralized finance (DeFi) space. We’ve also made it easier to transit into crypto, expanding our fiat support beyond U.S. dollars (USD), to offer trading in British pounds (GBP), Euros (EUR), Canadian dollars (CAD), Australian dollars (AUD), Hong Kong dollars (HKD), and Singapore dollars (SGD), making Gemini a truly global exchange.

__Imagining the Future of Finance__

We believe that Gemini will help shape the future of finance, and we’ve barely reached the bottom of the first inning for crypto. Over the past six years we’ve launched innovative projects and invested in compelling ideas, bringing incredible talent under the Gemini umbrella, acquiring four startups — [Nifty Gateway](https://niftygateway.com/), [Blockrize](https://www.gemini.com/blog/gemini-to-offer-credit-card-with-crypto-rewards), [ShardX](https://www.gemini.com/blog/gemini-enhances-speed-and-scale-of-asset-listings-transfers-and-usage-with), and [Guesser](https://www.gemini.com/blog/gemini-acquires-guesser-to-bolster-defi-opportunities) — since 2019.  

We’re excited about the upcoming launch of the [Gemini Credit Card](https://www.gemini.com/credit-card), with which cardholders can earn crypto rewards on their purchases. We also launched [Cryptopedia](https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia), an open-access, high-quality crypto education resource.

We’re thrilled about Nifty Gateway’s tremendous growth as the NFT space continues to draw interest from artists and collectors alike. Recently, the Nifty Gateway team released a [new site design](https://www.gemini.com/blog/introducing-the-new-nifty-gateway-design) with the aim of providing the best UI and UX in the NFT space, further unleashing the power of the ever-expanding Nifty Gateway community.

As we continue on our journey building the crypto universe, we are more excited than ever to work with innovative and driven individuals who want to join our mission. We have numerous open positions across various teams around the globe, which you can [check out here](https://www.gemini.com/careers). 

We’re confident in the power of crypto to change the world as we pursue our mission to empower you, the individual, through crypto.

Onward and Upward!

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss

Gemini’s 6th Anniversary!

Today, we are thrilled to announce __Gemini Green__, a long-term initiative to incorporate climate-conscious practices into our business. We’re on a mission to empower the individual through crypto, and we want to make sure we do so in a sustainable way.

[Gemini Green’s](https://www.gemini.com/green) initial focus is the energy consumption of the Bitcoin Network, namely the energy used by miners to secure the network. Many miners use renewable energy sources, which emit no carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; however, some miners do not. In an effort to offset the latter, we used reputable data sources to determine the annualized carbon footprint of the Bitcoin Network and then estimated Gemini's usage of the Bitcoin Network to understand our exposure to non-renewable mining. With this information, we have collaborated with Climate Vault, a non-profit organization founded by the University of Chicago, to purchase carbon permits to offset our exposure for the first half of this year. And we plan to continue to do so into the future. We discuss our results, methodology, and implementation below. 

__Result__

We have spent __$4,031,767.35__ to purchase carbon permits to offset the carbon emissions related to Gemini’s usage of the Bitcoin Network from January 1 to June 30, 2021. These carbon permits will prevent __341,965 metric tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere__ — the equivalent of nearly a billion miles driven by a typical passenger car.

__Methodology__

The Bitcoin Network’s energy consumption is a result of miners competing for the bitcoin block reward. This competition involves a computationally-intensive, proof of work (PoW) puzzle, whereby the “winning” miner is rewarded with a set number of bitcoin roughly every 10 minutes. This competition secures the Bitcoin blockchain and continues regardless of whether or not there are any transactions on the Bitcoin Network. Therefore, we define our “usage” of the Bitcoin Network as the portion of the mining process that we benefit from, or rather, the amount of energy consumed by miners to secure the bitcoin that Gemini custodies. We believe that this custody-based approach more accurately reflects Gemini’s usage of the Bitcoin Network as opposed to a transaction-based approach, which ignores the fact that bitcoin at rest are secured by the mining process.

As a result, we calculated the amount of bitcoin we custody as a percentage of the circulating supply of bitcoin to determine our usage of the Bitcoin Network and then applied this percentage to the Bitcoin Network’s total energy consumption to estimate the energy consumption related to our usage. We then offset the energy consumption related to our usage that we estimate to involve non-renewable mining. 3

__Step 1__: Calculate Gemini’s usage of the Bitcoin Network.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Gemini’s average daily bitcoin balance / Average daily bitcoin in circulation 1 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;= Gemini’s usage of the Bitcoin Network

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;250,843 BTC / 18,660,225 BTC = __1.34%__

__Step 2__: Calculate the energy consumed by miners related to Gemini’s usage of the Bitcoin Network (2021 YTD).

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Gemini’s usage of the Bitcoin Network x the Bitcoin Network’s average &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;annualized energy consumption 2 = energy consumed by miners related &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;to Gemini’s usage of the Bitcoin Network 

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1.34% x 106.6913 tWh = __1.434215 tWh__

__Step 3__: Calculate the carbon intensity of the energy used by the Bitcoin Network. “Carbon intensity” is defined as the amount of carbon emitted per unit of energy consumed. 

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Annualized carbon footprint of the Bitcoin Network 3 / Projected annual &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;energy usage of Bitcoin network = carbon intensity of the energy used by &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;the Bitcoin Network 3

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;60.40 Mt CO2 / 126.66 tWh = __476,867.20 mT CO2 / tWh__

__Step 4__: Calculate the carbon emissions related to Gemini’s usage of the Bitcoin Network.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(Energy consumed by miners related to Gemini’s usage of the Bitcoin &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Network x carbon intensity of the Bitcoin Network) x (days/year) = &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Carbon emissions related to Gemini’s usage of the Bitcoin Network

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(1.434215 tWh x 476,867.20 mT CO2 / tWh) x (182.5/365) = __341,965 mT &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;CO2__

__Step 5__: Calculate the cost to offset the carbon emissions related to Gemini’s usage of the Bitcoin Network.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Carbon emissions related to Gemini’s usage of the Bitcoin Network x cost &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;per permit to emit 1 mT CO2 = cost to offset the carbon emissions related &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;to Gemini’s usage of the Bitcoin Network

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;341,965 mT CO2 x $11.79 per permit / 1 mT CO2 = __$4,031,767.35__

1 Bitcoin Blockchain (source: [Blockchair](https://blockchair.com/bitcoin)) 
2 We used publicly available data from the [Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index](https://cbeci.org/) and the [Digiconomist Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index](https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption/) to determine Bitcoin’s average annualized electricity consumption. 
3 We used the data and methodology of the Digiconomist Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index to estimate a carbon intensity coefficient (“Carbon Footprint” and “Estimated TWh per Year”, both as of June 8, 2021). 

__Implementation__

Gemini Green has teamed up with [Climate Vault](https://climatevault.org/) to offset our carbon emissions. Climate Vault engages directly with government-regulated cap-and-trade markets to buy carbon permits and remove them from circulation by “vaulting” them, which prevents other market participants from using them to emit CO2 and reduces the overall supply of carbon permits, making it more expensive for businesses to pollute. Climate Vault also supports the development of cutting-edge carbon capture and sequestration technologies, further accelerating the removal of carbon from the atmosphere. 

__Looking Ahead__

In addition to purchasing offsets, we have allocated $1 million through the [Gemini Opportunity Fund](https://www.gemini.com/blog/gemini-opportunity-fund-launches-to-support-bitcoin-core-developers) to support companies, projects, and nonprofits that are focused on sustainability in the crypto industry. If you are working on a sustainability initiative, we want to hear from you. You can reach out to us at [opportunityfund@gemini.com](mailto:opportunityfund@gemini.com). 

Crypto promises greater choice, independence, and opportunity for all. As a global company, we are committed to raising the bar for environmental stewardship across the entire crypto industry so that we can usher in this revolutionary technology and movement in a sustainable way. If you’d like to learn more about partnering with Gemini Green, you can reach out to us at [green@gemini.com](mailto:green@gemini.com).

We are proud to be __the first crypto platform in the world to offset our carbon emissions__. 

Onward and Upward!

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss

Introducing Gemini Green: Offsetting Bitcoin Carbon Emissions

We are delighted to announce that Gemini is the Principal Partner of the 2021 Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race. 

Our partnership will enable the 166th Men’s and 75th Women’s races to go ahead in a safe manner, as well as fund the high performance rowing training at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and engage young people with limited access to rowing through The Gemini Boat Race Bursary Scheme. The £75,000 Bursary will provide rowing instruction and education to disadvantaged students by removing the financial barriers that often prevent them from taking part.

This is a special alliance for our company and for us personally, having competed in the 2010 Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race in the Oxford Blue Boat and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. 

We started rowing at the Saugatuck Rowing Club in 1997 when we met James Mangan, an Irishman who founded the club in 1990. Back then, James would show us VHS tapes of the Oxford-Cambridge race and we dreamed of one day competing at that level.

Rowing was our first foray into entrepreneurship, inspiring us to create the varsity rowing team at our high school. Our experience in rowing taught us that whether you are building yourself as an athlete or building a startup, the power of big dreams together with conviction and perseverance cannot be underestimated. This potent combination led us to row at Harvard, Oxford, the Olympics, and ultimately start Gemini, which today has over 350 employees worldwide.

Rowing instilled in us the power of aligning a team with shared principles and values for the purposes of advancing a common mission. At Gemini, we strive to move at the speed of innovation, with as much agility and velocity as possible. We are constantly in search of “swing,” that state of flow when everyone is rowing together or working together in harmony. It’s that powerful and rhythmic force that drives a rowing shell or startup towards its objective as fast, efficiently, and joyously as possible.

Our mission — to empower the individual through crypto — starts with providing you with a safe and secure platform to buy, sell, store, and earn on your crypto. After securing an E-money Institutions License from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2020, we [launched in the United Kingdom](https://www.gemini.com/blog/gemini-live-in-the-uk) as our first international market outside of the U.S.

We are thrilled to be combining two of our greatest passions — rowing and crypto — with our sponsorship of this historic event. 

Onward and Upward!

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss

Introducing The Gemini Boat Race 2021

The Decentralized Finance (DeFi) revolution is coming into bloom and it presents the possibility of permissionless, bankless, alternatives to the legacy financial system. The pandemic has stunted economic growth globally and created a bleak outlook for the traditional banking system in the years to come. Now, more than any other time in recent history, do citizens of the world need a new choice outside of the current system. 

DeFi offers such choice. Like a warm ray of sunlight shining down on us during the winter of our financial discontent, DeFi promises greater __choice__, __independence__, and __opportunity__ for all. Gemini shares this ethos. And that is why we are committed to building a trustworthy skybridge for you to traverse into this new, exciting frontier.

At its core DeFi is permissionless finance, underpinned by smart contract technology. Using blockchain-based smart contracts, DeFi replaces much of the functionality currently offered by traditional finance, delivering more value with less friction than legacy financial services providers. For example, current bank interest rates are at an all time low and many consumers have few options to earn an attractive yield on their capital. Borrowing and lending DeFi protocols like Maker, Aave, and Compound, provide an alternative for some, who might be willing to take on more risk and earn a higher rate of return.

Today, in that vein, we have added new support for 15 additional DeFi tokens. We believe in the potential of DeFi and are here to help usher in this next wave of growth and financial innovation for the world. We are excited by the number of worthy DeFi projects being built by impressive, dedicated teams that are already helping individuals around the world become their own bank and achieve financial freedom. 

By supporting these DeFi tokens, we aim to provide you with a simple and secure way to acquire and store these tokens so you can participate in the DeFi ecosystem. We also offer the [Gemini dollar](https://gemini.com/dollar) (GUSD), our regulated stablecoin, as another avenue of entry. 

We are in the early stages of the DeFi movement and look forward to continuing to help you on your journey into this magical, financial galaxy.

Onward and Upward,

Cameron & Tyler 

*Note: DeFi presents unique risks. The listing of a DeFi token on Gemini does not indicate that Gemini or any regulatory authority has endorsed the underlying project or protocol.  While some of our customers may choose to participate in the DeFi ecosystem, Gemini makes no recommendation that they do so.*

Gemini Is Your Trusted Onramp to Decentralized Finance

Over the past few weeks, we’ve had powerful conversations with our Black colleagues at Gemini about their experiences. We heard first-hand accounts detailing the discrimination they grew up with, the fears they live with, and the exhaustion they carry. Considering this, we wanted to reexamine the commitments we've made at Gemini and to the global crypto community. 

We must acknowledge that the Black experience in America is marred by racism, inequity, and brutality. The senseless killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks are unfortunately just four of the countless examples that reinforce the collective trauma and fear that Black people experience on a daily basis. America promises to provide a free and just society for all its citizens; however, America has — in practice and in fact — systematically breached this social contract with the Black community for hundreds of years.

At Gemini, we’re making the following affirmations: 

1. Black Lives Matter. 
2. Black lives have been disproportionately impacted by systemic racism and injustice in America. 
3. Speaking out against anti-blackness is not a political issue — it’s a humanitarian one. 
4. It’s time to reform systems that discriminate against Black lives.
5. We stand with the Black community today and forever.

We’ll express these affirmations clearly through the following actions:

1. Gemini is committed to hiring a full-time person to lead our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) strategy. Systemic issues like anti-blackness and racism require both immediate and long-term action — our DEI strategy will directly address both.
2. Gemini is committed to providing direct economic support to organizations focused on education, economic, and social justice reform for the Black community. To that end, Gemini will be donating $250K to organizations recommended by, voted on, and chosen by our employees.
3. Gemini has instituted an annual gift-matching program of up to $1K per employee, per year, to support organizations they choose.
4. Gemini will designate Juneteenth (June 19th) as an official company holiday.

This is a complex, centuries-old issue and we recognize that the road to change will not be quick or easy. But that has never stopped Gemini before. 

Crypto has the power to offer greater choice, independence, and opportunity. To ensure that everyone has a chance to participate in this promise, we will need to build crypto products that are simple, elegant, and secure and that also incorporate the diverse and inclusive perspectives of individuals with backgrounds that reflect the world we aim to empower.

Onward and Upward,

Cameron + Tyler


Black Lives Matter

Today, we stand before the dawn of a new decade. As we look ahead, there is little doubt that the next one — the 2020s — will be ‘the decade of crypto.’ As the sun sets on the last 10 years, which ushered in Bitcoin and crypto as we know it, it is with great pride that we look back on 2019 and with great excitement that we look forward to what’s to come.

It’s been more than [four years](https://gemini.com/blog/geminis-4th-birthday) since we launched the Gemini Spaceship into the great, beautiful unknown. While our voyage has covered much ground, it is just beginning. While our mission — __*to*__ __*empower the individual through crypto*__ — has accomplished much, it is far from over.

2019 has been a building year for both Gemini and our industry. Despite a crypto winter that has persisted for more than two years, we have stayed focused on quietly laying the foundation for the next wave of use-cases and mainstream adoption. Below are some of our 2019 highlights: 

- [Gemini Custody™](https://gemini.com/blog/introducing-gemini-custody) - we expanded our Qualified Custodian offering to support 18 cryptos (more to come in 2020). We introduced new features, such as Instant Liquidity, which allows you to instantly trade your crypto held in custody on our exchange without waiting for it to be transferred out of cold storage.
- [State Street Pilot](https://gemini.com/blog/state-street-and-gemini-launch-digital-asset-pilot) - we were selected by State Street for its new digital asset pilot. As part of the pilot, financial institutions can now custody their digital assets with Gemini Custody™ and receive reporting and holdings information via State Street.
- [SOC 2](https://gemini.com/blog/gemini-completes-soc-2-review-a-worlds-first-for-a-cryptocurrency-exchange-and-custodian)  - we completed a SOC 2 Type 1 examination and are currently undergoing a SOC 2 Type 2 examination.
- [Sub-Accounts](https://gemini.com/blog/introducing-subaccounts-for-institutions) - we released sub-accounts which allow you to  create and manage multiple accounts with distinct sets of users, account balances, and unique crypto addresses all under a single master account.
- [Gemini Clearing™](https://gemini.com/blog/introducing-gemini-clearing)- we launched a fully-electronic clearing and settlement solution for off-exchange or over-the-counter (OTC) crypto trades.
- [SEN Network](https://gemini.com/blog/gemini-joins-the-silvergate-exchange-network) - we joined the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN), which allows our institutional customers to deposit and withdraw U.S. dollars 24/7/365.
- __Index Inclusion__ - we [joined](https://gemini.com/blog/gemini-will-join-the-cme-cf-bitcoin-reference-rate-brr-and-cme-cf-bitcoin-real-time-index-brti) the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR) and CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index (BRTI). We also [joined](https://gemini.com/blog/gemini-joins-the-bitmex-indexes) the Bitmex .BXBT and .BETH indexes.
- Global Expansion - we launched in [Australia](https://gemini.com/blog/gemini-launches-in-australia) and hired Julian Sawyer to lead our expansion into the UK and Europe in 2020 — get ready! 
- __New Hires__ - we welcomed a new [Chief Security Officer](https://gemini.com/blog/gemini-welcomes-david-damato-as-chief-security-officer) and [Chief Compliance Officer](https://gemini.com/blog/gemini-welcomes-noah-perlman-as-chief-compliance-officer) aboard the Gemini Spaceship.
- [Gemini Chicago](https://gemini.com/blog/gemini-opens-chicago-office-to-meet-growing-institutional-demand) - we opened an office in Chicago. If you are interested in joining us in Chicago, New York, or Portland, Oregon, check out our [careers page](https://gemini.com/careers).
- [Nifty Gateway™](https://gemini.com/blog/gemini-expands-into-non-fungible-tokens-nfts-with-nifty-gateway-tm) - We made our first acquisition! We believe that art and collectibles on the blockchain — in the form of non-fungible tokens or ‘nifities’ — will become a significant medium of expression and creativity. Nifty Gateway™ is user-friendly a bridge into this new world.
- [Advancing Payments](https://gemini.com/blog/flexa-and-gemini-partner-to-make-it-easy-to-use-cryptocurrency) - we partnered with Flexa so that you can spend your Gemini dollars and other cryptos at select retailers across the country. We also teamed up with [BitPay](https://gemini.com/blog/paying-bills-with-gemini-dollars), the largest global blockchain payments provider, so that you can pay your bills with Gemini dollars.
- [Virtual Commodity Association](https://gemini.com/blog/vca-working-towards-sro-designation-stands-up-six-committees-to-help-protect-americas-crypto) - we participated as members in helping the VCA stand up six committees focused on topics such as custody, insurance, and market integrity. Our Head of Risk, Yusuf Hussain, was appointed President of the VCA’s Board of Directors.

Today, crypto is still a niche technology and form of money. It is not crucial to your everyday life the way email and other web applications are, but our thesis is that this will change — it’s already changing if you look close enough. This is because crypto makes decentralization possible, which is to say its raison d'etre and center of gravity is the empowerment of the individual.

Within this decade, crypto will redesign the Internet, the financial system, and money in a way that fosters and protects the rights and dignity of the individual. This means it will make as great of a contribution to your personal freedom as the invention of the printing press, the personal computer, and the early Internet.

That’s progress and ultimately why crypto will work. It is too fair to ignore; its gravitational pull, too strong to deny. When given the choice, you will choose more freedom, not less. And that’s why you, and everyone else, will choose crypto.

Here’s to the 2020s...the future is you.

Onward and Upward,

Tyler + Cameron

Tyler e Cameron