Gemini is an American cryptocurrency exchange and custodian, based in New York City. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss founded it in 2014, announced it in 2013, and took it live on 25 October 2015. The platform lets users buy, sell, and hold crypto, and it pairs the exchange with custody services for digital assets.
Gemini operates as a regulated New York trust company. It holds a Limited Purpose Trust Charter from the New York Department of Financial Services, granted in October 2015, which places it under that regulator's oversight. That trust-company structure, rather than a standard money-transmitter setup, is part of how Gemini positions itself on compliance and custody. The company went public in 2025: on 12 September 2025, Gemini began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker GEMI following its initial public offering.
As a custodial exchange, Gemini holds the private keys to the assets you keep in your account, and you rely on it to safeguard and return them. Users who want sole control move their crypto to a self-custody wallet.
Gemini is best known for its regulatory standing in New York and for marketing itself to users who value compliance and custody discipline. It has built products around holding and trading a curated set of assets rather than listing as many tokens as possible.
The company has a documented regulatory and legal history tied mainly to its Gemini Earn lending program, run with the lender Genesis. On 12 January 2023, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission charged Gemini Trust Company with the unregistered offer and sale of securities to retail investors through Earn. In October 2023, the New York Attorney General sued Gemini over the same program. On 1 March 2024, Gemini agreed to refund at least $1.1 billion to users of the halted Earn program and to pay a $37 million fine. Separately, in January 2025, Gemini reached a $5 million settlement with the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission over statements it had made to the regulator about a bitcoin auction. Available products differ by jurisdiction.
Anyone considering Gemini should confirm what is offered where they live and read the current terms. Fees vary by product and order type, so check the current schedule before trading.