On Thursday (September 24), crypto asset Gemini announced that it had launched in the UK.
The Winklevoss twins—Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss—are the co-founders of Gemini Trust Company, LLC (which operates the Gemini digital asset exchange) as well as family office Winklevoss Capital Management, LLC.
In a blog post published earlier today,Gemini CEO Tyler Winklevoss announced that they had expanded their UK operations to make it easier for UK users to buy, sell, and store cryptoassets.
He went on to say that Gemini now supports the British Pound (GBP) in order to provide a better/localized experience for UK residents, who are now able to buy crypto using either GBP-based debit card or by depositing GBP into their Gemini fiat wallet via their bank. In the case of the latter, the payment to Gemini can be made using Faster Payments, CHAPS, or SWIFT.
Tyler also mentioned that Gemini recently became authorized by the UK’s financial regulator—Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)—as an electronic money institution (EMI) in accordance with the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (EMRs), and reminded us that Gemini is firmly in favor of a policy of always asking financial regulators for permission before launching a new product/service rather than doing so after the fact and then begging them for forgiveness.
You can create a Gemini account by either downloading the Gemini Mobile App from the Google Play Store (Android) or UK App Store (iOS), or by registering on the Gemini website.
Once you have deposited some GP into your Gemini account, you can then buy—via either the Gemini mobile app or the Gemini website—the following cryptoassets: Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Dai (DAI), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), ChainLink (LINK), Orchid (OXT), Amp (AMP), Pax Gold (PAXG), and Compound (COMP).
Both Winklevoss twins are huge advocates for Bitcoin:
On August 27, Tyler published a blog post titled “The Case for $500K Bitcoin,” in which he tried to make the case that “Bitcoin is ultimately the only long-term protection against inflation” and to explain why he and his brother Cameron believe that the price of Bitcoin could reach $500,000.
Tyler started by pointing out by explaining why he feels that the U.S. dollar is not a good store of value despite it being the world’s primary reserve currency for “the last 75 years.”
Next, he said that governments can only reduce their debt in three ways:
“They can choose to (i) not pay some portion of their debt (i.e, “hard default”), (ii) adopt austerity measures in hopes of running a budget surplus, or (iii) reduce the value of the debt they owe through inflation (i.e., “soft default”).”
He then said that of these three strategies, the one that is likely to be adopted by most governments (including the U.S. government”) is soft default, which he explained as follows:
“In this scheme, a government intentionally devalues its currency in order to erode the real value of the debt that it owes. Lenders still get paid the same amount of dollars that they are entitled to, however, because of inflation, such dollars are now worth less in real terms.”
As for gold (“the classic inflation hedge”) Tyler says that although gold is currently “a reliable store of value”, there are two problems with this use case for gold: (i) “the supply of gold is actually unknown” (assuming that commercial astroid mining becomes a reality); and (ii) it’s hard to move gold (especially during times of crisis, such as when you are in the middle of a war or a pandemic).
Next, Tyler argued that Bitcoin is bound to take over from gold as the ultimate inflation edge because it is superior to gold in various ways, the main two being much greater scarcity and much better portability.
Although he accepts that for “risk-averse types” gold might be “the right short to medium-term choice,” he believes that “the rate of technological adoption is growing exponentially”, which means that Bitcoin should increasingly replace gold as the best store of value.
Tyler says that gold’s current market cap is around $9 trillion. Therefore, if we use “a gold framework to value bitcoin,” we could say that “the bull case scenario for Bitcoin is that it is undervalued by a multiple of 45,” which means that the price of Bitcoin could reach $500,000 if Bitcoin, as he predicts, replaces gold as the ultimate store of value.
Furthermore, Tyler points out that this $500K figure could even be considered a conservative estimate if the world’s central banks start converting part of their USD reserves to Bitcoin.
Featured Image by “derwiki” via Pixabay.com
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.