Gemini Cryptocurrency Exchange Review

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Gemini’s history

Gemini cryptocurrency exchange started its activity in 2015 in the USA. The founders are the Winklevoss brothers, who focused on the best cryptocurrency exchanges and made Gemini a fully regulated international exchange. The platform started operating after the New York State Department of Financial Services approved such activities.

The exchange works with private traders and institutional investors. The exchange’s interface is available only in English, because it is designed for large players from developed countries (USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, UK). Notably, Gemini was the first who launched BTC on Winkdex Bitcoin index.

Deposits are credited to the account instantly, without waiting for confirmation of the transfer record in the blockchain.

The brothers have built an institutional-level infrastructure. As a New York-based trust company, they are licensed to provide digital asset exchange and custody services.

The exchange is fiduciary and takes into account capital reserve requirements, cybersecurity requirements and bank compliance standards set by the NYS Department of Financial Services and NYS banking laws.

The Gemini Marketplace conducts auctions for certain trading pairs every day (including weekends and holidays) that promote liquidity and price discovery.

Connection options meet the needs of all traders. They include REST, WebSockets and FIX via cross-connect from Equinix NY4 or NY5 data centers. You can use these protocols to access public market data as well as closed trading sessions.

A real-time, dynamic betting schedule builder provides a transparent and incentive-based trading experience.

Deposit accounts meet the needs of large and active traders looking for a secure place to store digital assets before and after a trade.

Segregated deposit accounts are ideal for institutional customers such as hedge funds, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds who may be required by law to keep their digital assets with a licensed custodian such as Gemini.

All dollar deposits are held at FDIC-insured banks. Most digital assets are saved offline in Cold Storage’s proprietary system.

Gemini serves a wide range of customers including individuals, institutions, algorithmic traders, private traders, market makers, investment firms, hedge funds and various digital asset companies.

Registration and Verification

For private traders and institutional investors different accounts are created on the exchange. First, you will need an email address and password. Then enter the activation code sent in the email to the specified address.

After that you start the process of account registration. To do this you need to enter your place of residence registration and phone number. Connect two-step authentication, so that every time you log into your account you get SMS with the code. Then the bank account is added, and the moment of verification comes. You need to upload your passport scan. For organizations you will additionally need to enter all data about the company, give the legal address, TIN, company name, the representative of the company will be asked for the position and home address. Only residents of the countries where the exchange operates can register.

Methods of deposit and withdrawal of funds

You can deposit money to the exchange market only in dollars by bank transfer. To do this, you should enter the Transfer Funds menu and go to the Bank Transfer tab. Then you need to specify the transfer amount. You can’t transfer more than $500 on account.

The bank transfer for withdrawal of funds amounts to $100 thousand per day.

Trading at Gemini

Gemini operates only with Bitcoin and Ethereum. To buy one of these cryptocurrencies, you need to select the appropriate pair in the list and click “Buy”. Then enter the value and amount of the currency you are buying. You can also place a market order, which is executed instantly.

At an exchange there are such kinds of orders:

• Market – order at market price;
• Limit – trader waits for execution of the order at a fixed price;
• Maker-or-Cancel (MOC) – the order is executed at the last price at the end of trading;
• Immediate-or-Cancel (IOC) – the order is either immediately executed or cancelled.

The exchange works 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

Trading volume

The trading volume of Gemini inspires confidence, although today this site is not even in the top 50 leaders of the ranking (it is stable in the seventh ten). Nevertheless, over the years of changes in the cryptocurrency market, the exchange manages to maintain a stable position and be in demand.

Commissions

The exchange does not take a commission for the deposit and withdrawal of funds. Banks can withdraw a certain percentage when transferring dollars from a bank account to an exchange deposit.

There is a 0.25% commission for trading on the exchange.

Auctions

The exchange conducts bilateral auctions every day. To participate, you must enter a special auction market or limit orders.

Orders have a value that most participants have agreed to. Shortly before the opening of the auction, the orders are transmitted to the exchange. New prices are continually calculated, and participants keep track of the value of the currencies: and either raise the bid or are played out.

Investors can buy large volumes of Bitcoin or Ether for dollars. Through auctions, the exchange’s trading volume increases at fair prices.

Security of funds

The creators of the exchange excellent care about the safety of funds. Now, it is one of the safest exchanges in the world.

• All funds are stored in cold storage. Cold Storage provides two levels of offline storage, dubbed “cold” and “cryo” to increase security.
• Used by HSMs that have achieved a FIPS PUB 140-2 Level 3 rating (or higher).
• All cold and cryo private keys are generated, stored and managed onboard the HSM for the life of the key.
• In addition, the exchange uses Multi-Signature technology to protect against hacker attacks as well as the inability to access the key or object.
• All HSMs are stored in secure, access-controlled facilities that are geographically distributed.
• Equipment comes from different vendors to protect against supply chain risks.
• All fund transfers require coordinated action by multiple employees.
• Account authentication consists of two steps. A message is sent to the phone with a code that must be specified when logging into the account.

Which countries does it operate in?

Gemini works with clients in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore.

Gemini is a reliable and secure service for buying Bitcoin and Ethereum. It complies with all legal regulations, but unfortunately it does not work in all countries.