Amidst regulatory headwinds back home, the Winklevoss twins have doubled down their efforts to expand Gemini’s offerings to non-US residents. The new service aims to target both retail and institutional traders but will exclude users from UK and EU.
Gemini Foundation – the highly anticipated non-US derivatives platform – went live on May 1st for customers in all 29 available jurisdictions, including Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Argentina, Bahamas, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands (BVI), Bhutan, Brazil, Cayman Islands, Chile, Egypt, El Salvador, among others.
At launch, Gemini Foundation will offer BTC perpetual contracts denominated in Gemini dollars (GUSD) with up to 100x leverage. In the coming weeks, the platform plans to launch ETH/GUSD perpetual contract as well.
Regulatory Headwinds in the US
Since founding Gemini in 2014, it has long worked with regulators in the United States. A year after launch, Gemini received a trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
It hit a serious operational challenge in 2022 after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sued the company, alleging it of making “false and misleading statements” to deploy the first US-regulated Bitcoin futures contract in 2017.
More recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Gemini alongside Genesis with the unregistered offer and sale of securities. The regulator took aim at Gemini Earn lending service, the yield-bearing product which thousands of US investors entrusted with their crypto.
However, the offshore division marks Gemini’s first product focused outside the United States, indicating a crucial stage for the company as it joins the bandwagon of crypto firms taking their business elsewhere. Despite the hurdles, the Winklevoss twins said they still hope to launch a derivatives product in the home country.
Asia Pivot
In addition to the launch of a new division, Gemini has also pivoted to Asia. After Singapore’s expansion, the company announced plans to set up a new engineering hub in Gurgaon, India.
The products and features developed in India could be used by institutional and retail clients in over 70 nations. The newly-formed team, which will be headed by the newly appointed CEO of Gemini Asia Pacific, Pravjit Tiwana, will aim to develop next-generation Web and mobile user experience and introduce feature sets for NFT and crypto marketplaces.
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