An inside source told the Financial Times this week that the Winklevoss Twins’ regulated cryptocurrency exchange “Gemini” is planning a possible expansion to the UK. While no official announcements were made, a Gemini spokesperson released a statement responding to the rumors shortly after the story was published. The statement explained:
Gemini continues to explore potential jurisdictions around the globe to provide a best-in-class digital asset exchange and custodian which will enable growth and infrastructure to the entire digital asset community. Although we have no immediate plans, we will always evaluate opportunities that allow the global economy to buy, sell and store digital assets in a regulated, secure, and compliant manner.
The statement did not confirm or deny the rumors, but certainly seemed to send the message that they are in talks about setting up exchanges in different countries.
Launching a UK trading platform would not be a surprising move for the Winklevoss twins. The pair has big plans for Gemini, and have had significant progress with regulators, aside from the rejection of their ETF proposal in July. CryptoGlobe reported the twins already have a regulated exchange, and a regulated dollar-backed stablecoin, both using the name Gemini.
Crypto Twins
When Bitcoin was at it’s all time high late last year, CNBC reported that the combined crypto wealth of the Winklevoss twins was over $1 billion. They have also claimed to own over 1% of the Bitcoin in the world.
The twins are well known outside of the crypto community because they co-founded a website called HarvardConnection, which was later renamed ConnectU.
In 2004, the brothers sued Mark Zuckerberg, claiming that he copied their website and used the model of ConnectU to create Facebook. Ultimately, they received a 65 million settlement from Facebook, and have since become venture capitalists. After their introduction to Bitcoin, the two have been focusing almost entirely on crypto projects.
