Gemini (GEMI): un exchange di criptovalute orientato alla conformità

Conformità delle criptovalute e il cambiamento istituzionale

As cryptocurrencies are becoming more mainstream and accepted by financial institutions, the ‘rebel aura’ of the sector is slowly fading away.

Da un lato, ciò può essere visto come l’industria delle criptovalute che tradisce le sue promesse iniziali di rappresentare un’alternativa alle valute fiat e ai sistemi finanziari consolidati.

Dall’altro lato, ha senso che, man mano che le criptovalute progrediscono sia in adozione che in importanza, aumenti la regolamentazione e l’intervento dello Stato.

In questo contesto, alcuni exchange di criptovalute sono meglio posizionati di altri, poiché hanno una maggiore attenzione alla conformità con le normative finanziarie e all’interazione con grandi istituzioni finanziarie.

Un forte esempio è Gemini (Gemini Space Station – (GEMI ), che si descrive in termini appropriati:

“Come ponte affidabile tra il sistema finanziario tradizionale e la criptoeconomia emergente, forniamo accesso a individui e istituzioni a un futuro decentralizzato più aperto, equo e sicuro.”

L’azienda è appena stata autorizzata a operare nei mercati di previsione statunitensi, facendo salire significativamente il prezzo delle sue azioni grazie alla notizia. Questo rappresenta una solida vittoria per la strategia dell’azienda di conformità di alta qualità, senza compromettere le sue credenziali crypto.

Panoramica di Gemini Exchange

Storia

The crypto exchange Gemini was first announced in 2013 and launched in 2015, and was created by the twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, famous for their lawsuit against Facebook for having “stolen their idea and code”, a lawsuit ultimately settled with a large payment to the Winklevoss brothers.

Entrambi sono ancora alla guida dell’azienda come CEO e Presidente, rispettivamente.

Fonte: Bloomberg

Gemini è stato il primo exchange di Ethereum con licenza basato negli Stati Uniti già nel 2016.

Nel 2017, il Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) ha iniziato a utilizzare Gemini per regolare i suoi contratti futures su Bitcoin, sebbene abbia poi interrotto la quotazione dei futures su Bitcoin nel 2019, per poi riprendere in seguito.

In generale, Gemini ha sempre favorito un approccio più vicino e imitante le istituzioni finanziarie consolidate, allontanandosi dall’approccio più tecnologico “rompere le cose e muoversi velocemente” spesso preferito dai concorrenti.

Ad esempio, Gemini ha iniziato a utilizzare la tecnologia SMARTS di NASDAQ nel 2018 per monitorare le negoziazioni e combattere attività fraudolente e manipolazioni di prezzo sul suo exchange. Nello stesso periodo, ha anche ricevuto l’approvazione per lanciare la sua stablecoin Gemini dollar (GUSD) (vedi più sotto).

Nel 2020, Gemini ha lanciato una partnership con Samsung così gli utenti di smartphone potevano collegare i loro Samsung Blockchain Wallet ai loro conti Gemini per visualizzare i saldi e trasferire crypto.

Nel settembre 2025, l’azienda ha chiuso la sua IPO a un prezzo di offerta pubblica di $28,00 per azione (sopra i prezzi attuali a dicembre 2025) sotto il ticker $GEMI.

Gemini in cifre

In December, Gemini reported trading volumes of up to $100M per day (approximately 1,000 BTC). The platform custodies up to $7.6 billion in client assets, primarily Bitcoin and Ethereum, rather than holding these assets on its own corporate balance sheet.

Fonte: CoinMarketCap

Come exchange di criptovalute, Gemini è solitamente classificata tra le prime 20-30 a livello globale per volume, ma riceve anche una classifica #5-#8 per qualità/punteggio, grazie a una maggiore sicurezza e a una migliore conformità alle normative. È stata persino inserita tra le ““Migliori exchange di criptovalute del 2024” di Forbes insieme a Kraken, Crypto.com e Coinbase, tra gli altri.

In totale, oltre 70 criptovalute sono disponibili su Gemini e 21 coppie di scambio crypto‑to‑crypto.

Costruire fiducia attraverso la sicurezza

The recognition by financial institutions and large corporations matches Gemini’s branding not as a crypto exchange, but as the “trusted crypto-native finance platform” and as a “trusted bridge between the traditional financial system and the emerging cryptoeconomy”.

Another mantra of the company is equally going in the opposite direction of most tech startups:

“Chiedi il permesso, non il perdono”.

Questo focus sulla sicurezza ha permesso all’azienda di ottenere  certificazioni ISO 27001 e SOC 2 Type 2.

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is required by default, and address allowlisting allows users to restrict cryptocurrency withdrawals to allowlisted cryptocurrency addresses.

This reputation and certifications help Gemini build a bridge with institutional investors for Gemini spot and derivatives trading, custody, and “eOTC” (eOTC, Gemini’s automated Over-The-Counter trading platform).

It offers hedge funds “tight spreads, deep liquidity, and fast execution are available across multiple products, accessing both spot and derivatives trading.”

Gemini is also a partner for building crypto-related ETFs or closed-end funds, optimizing trade execution, settlement, custody, and other capital markets services, for example, having helped launch in dicembre 2025 VanEck’s Solana ETF.

Prodotti Gemini e driver di reddito

Criptovalute

Gemini offers all the crypto services you can expect from a major crypto exchange.

Questo include la possibilità di acquistare le principali criptovalute(Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, ecc.), con ricerca semplificata, avvisi e notizie. È anche possibile gestire una strategia crypto con acquisti ricorrenti automatizzati e lo strumento “ActiveTrader”, il tutto con commissioni basse basate su tier di volume.

Un wallet per l’auto-custodia, in grado di gestire più catene, configurabile con FaceID o TouchID, oltre a una scheda “Invest”. Il wallet supporta diverse catene/reti: Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Base e Optimism.

Azioni tokenizzate e azioni on-chain

Besides crypto, users of Gemini can access tokenized stocks, including some of the world’s largest tech companies.

This process of tokenization allows customers to keep their entire financial life on-chain while still investing in traditional stocks. The system also has zero trading fees.

It offers around-the-clock trading, fractional shares, and provides access to these stocks from the EU with no US broker required. The system functions through a 1:1 backing by real shares and ERC-20 tokens.

These tokenized stocks are currently available to non-U.S. users, primarily in the EU, and are not offered to U.S. retail investors due to regulatory constraints.

Gemini Card

Gemini Card is a credit card that can earn up to 4% on every purchase, either in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies available on Gemini.

È stata lanciata nel 2021 in partnership con Mastercard.

Our focus with digital currencies isn’t really about getting more people into crypto but giving them the option if they are interested — and demystifying it so they can take advantage of a full range of choices.

Jess Turner – Executive vice president, New Digital Infrastructure & Fintech, MasterCard

Gemini dollar (GUSD)

Stablecoins are there to provide a bridge between cryptos and fiat currencies, usually by creating a 1:1 equivalence in crypto to a USD reserve. GUSD is playing a role in this ecosystem.

This has been a market so far dominated by a few players, with USDT (tether) and UDSC accumulating tens or hundreds of billions of US dollars of value.

In comparison, GUSD is a relative failure, as its market cap is only $240M, making it not only the #7 stablecoin by market cap, but almost 1,000x smaller than Tether.

However, Gemini’s GUSD regulatory clarity could appeal more than alternatives to compliance-focused treasury teams and institutional payments requiring banking-grade safeguards.

So if these institutions start to use stablecoins a lot more, this could benefit Gemini greatly.

Servizi di staking crypto

The company offers a staking option, a strategy that allows users to hold crypto to earn rewards with cryptos like Ether, Solana, and Monad.

The system has no minimums and no transfer fees. It leverages an essential feature of proof of stake (PoS) protocols, which differ from the Proof of Work (PoW) used by protocols like Bitcoin.

While certainly not a unique feature of Gemini, it is a nice-to-have feature to add to the rest of its ecosystem to keep its users from needing another provider.

Perpetuals

Perpetual contracts, also available on Gemini, are similar to a crypto futures contract. But they differ in the sense that they have no expiry date, like a normal future (both crypto and traditional futures).

These financial tools give traders the possibility to gain exposure to a cryptoasset without having to hold it.

These trades can be long or short, and use a variety of assets as collateral, for example, Bitcoin or USDC. Gemini offers up to 100x leverage for these trades, although  10x is the default leverage level for retail clients. Note that, leverage limits vary by jurisdiction, with significantly lower caps applied to U.S. retail users due to regulatory requirements.

Web3 / NFT

Gemini’s Nifty Gateway Studio helps creator bring their work on the blockchain, including by creating unique collectibles, IPs, etc.

It includes an NFT marketplace with 28,000+ items.

Gemini Earn

The service was suspended in novembre 2022 and ended two months later. This was because Genesis, the sole counterparty for the Earn program, stopped all withdrawals and new loans, following the collapse of the FTX exchange.

By giugno 2024, the final Earn distributions were now available in the company’s users’ accounts.

This allowed Gemini to enter into an agreement to settle the lawsuit the New York Attorney General had brought against the company, accusing it of misrepresenting the risks to its users.

With a 237% recovery ($1 billion more in value) from when Genesis halted withdrawals, this final payment removes a black mark on Gemini’s history, caught in a major crypto collapse not directly related to the company.

Mercati di previsione Gemini

Sfide normative e risoluzione legale

In 2022 and 2023, the company faced a series of lawsuits by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the  Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)for misrepresentation of their products.

In 2025, Gemini reached a preliminary settlement with the SEC regarding this issue.

In gennaio 2025, it also paid a $5 million penalty to resolve the case with the CFTC, likely clearing the way for the recent approval in prediction markets by the same regulator.

So overall, Gemini is getting over most of its legal troubles with regulators in 2025.

Ingresso nei mercati di previsione

Gemini’s affiliate, Gemini Titan LLC, has received approval from the U.S to operate as a Designated Contract Market (DCM).

This gives it the opportunity to offer regulated prediction markets to U.S. customers. This was the end of a five-year licensing process and the beginning of “a new chapter for the exchange”.

“Prediction markets have the potential to be as big or bigger than traditional capital markets.

For example, “Will 1 bitcoin end this year higher than $200k?” Yes or no. Or, “Will Elon Musk’s X end up paying the full $140 million fine to the European Commission in 2026?” Yes or no.”

The news was very welcomed by the market, with a surge in Gemini’s stock price, not for the news itself, but as a sign of the company’s approach to compliance with regulations being successful. It was a welcome respite, as the IPO was unlucky to have coincided with a period of turmoil for crypto markets.

This approval is part of a larger turn toward a positive attitude toward the crypto world by the White House, something that the company CEO has directly acknowledged:

“We thank President Trump for ending the Biden Administration’s War on Crypto and Acting Chairman Pham for her hard work and dedication to help realize President Trump’s vision for making America the crypto capital of the world.

It’s incredibly refreshing and invigorating to have a President and a financial regulator who are pro crypto, pro innovation, and pro America.

Tyler Winklevoss – Gemini’s CEO

This puts Gemini alongside other giants of the sector like Kalshi (which is regulated) and Polymarket (which provides access to offshore users without  U.S. authorization).

As a market with more open questions than traditional markets (or crypto), prediction markets are sitting mid-way between betting and traditional financial markets.

Gemini describes this as an additional step, part of a broader effort to build a “one-stop financial super app.”

Conclusione

Crypto has for a long time been a sort of far-west of finance, where the focus was on innovation first, and respecting regulations later.

In part, this was simply because the existing legacy rules were just not a match for an innovation like blockchain, and the regulators have been slow to react. At the same time, it was an outshoot of the Silicon Valley ethos of taking risks, breaking things sometimes, and asking for forgiveness later.

But what works for a smartphone app or other software can be a lot trickier for something as heavily regulated and important as money.

So even if some among the crypto enthusiasts will see it as a betrayal of the initial promise, it was probably unavoidable that some level of “normalization” would occur to blockchain in general, and cryptos in particular.

Gemini and its founders have understood this trend early and positioned themselves accordingly. In a world where major banks and investment firms are opening Bitcoin and Solana ETFs, crypto credit cards, etc, legacy financial institutions are looking for partners to embrace this new world, with Gemini already helping the most reactive ones.

In the past few years, it seems that even its compliance-first approach has not avoided situations where Gemini fell in hot water with the regulators.

With settlements and small penalties paid, its IPO, and recent approval for a prediction market, the company seems to have firmly put behind this era, to embrace a role as a prominent actor in making cryptos mainstream, even if it means taming it a little, so they can embrace their role as an alternative currency.

Ultime notizie e sviluppi sul titolo Gemini (GEMI)