The Winklevoss Twins Have Lost Nearly $1 Billion in the Bitcoin Meltdown
Think you’ve taken a bath in the Bitcoin’s recent plunge in value? Be glad you’re not Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.
The twins, most famous for trying and failing to gain control of Facebook after alleging that it had been appropriated from them, have seen the value of their cryptocurrency holdings fall by $922 million in the past month.
With a wallet that holds an estimated 120,000 bitcoins, the Winklevosses were arguably more exposed than anyone to the severe market fluctuations the cryptocurrency has seen of late. But don’t shed too many tears for them. They’re still remarkably rich — and still bitcoin billionaires.
Four years ago, the two made an $11 million investment in bitcoin. To date, they have reportedly not sold a single one, sitting on them and watching them accrue value. It’s been a stunning thing to witness. When the Winklevosses used a portion of the $65 million they won in a lawsuit against Facebook (fb), the currency was trading at just $120. As of Thursday morning, bitcoin’s value was $11,854, according to CoinMarketCap. That puts the estimated value of their holdings at $1.4 billion.
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I want all my lost access yahoo account 'delete'; Requesting supporter for these old account deletion; 'except' my Newest yahoo account this Account don't delete! Because I don't want it interfering my online 'gamble' /games/business/data/ Activity , because the computer/security program might 'scure' my Information and detect theres other account; then secure online activities/ business securing from my suspicion because of my other account existing will make the security program be 'Suspicious' until I'm 'secure'; and if I'm gambling online 'Depositing' then I need those account 'delete' because the insecurity 'Suspicioun' will program the casino game 'Programs' securities' to be… more
chithidio@Yahoo.com
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Repair the Yahoo Search App.
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I let Google know that the Yahoo Search App installed from their Google Play Store had completely stopped working on May 18, 2018.
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WEBPAGE NOT AVAILABLE
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Yahoo needs to fix the problem with their app.
Yahoo Search App from the Google Play Store on my Samsung Galaxy S8+ phone stopped working on May 18, 2018.
I went to the Yahoo Troubleshooting page but the article that said to do a certain 8 steps to fix the problem with Yahoo Services not working and how to fix the problem. Of course they didn't work.
I contacted Samsung thru their Samsung Tutor app on my phone. I gave their Technican access to my phone to see if there was a problem with my phone that stopped the Yahoo Search App from working. He went to Yahoo and… more
Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF to Trade on NASDAQ Under 'COIN' Symbol
The Winklevoss twins have filed an amended Form S-1 with the SEC. The minor update reveals a few new facts about the Winklevoss exchange traded fund (ETF).
So far Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have updated their ETF filing four times. The process of registering an ETF is painstakingly slow: the twins originally filed for an investment fund a year ago, on 1st July 2013.
New update reveals ETF symbol
According to the latest filing, shares in the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust will trade on the NASDAQ OMX under the symbol 'COIN'.
There are a number of cosmetic changes too, described by the Wall Street Journal as "minor tweaks".
The new S-1 lists a number of new risk factors, mostly revolving around government regulation. The filing also outlines Switzerland's latest legislative measures and notes Bolivia's recent central bank ban on bitcoin.
On the technology front, the filing mentions the possibility of a 51% attack. Another warning is that core developers could stop maintaining the bitcoin protocol unless they are paid. Both issues have received a lot of coverage in recent weeks amid a public debate on mitigating the risk of a 51% attack and speeding up core development.
No word on a launch date yet
Although the brothers are making progress and the ETF is starting to take shape, it is still too early to talk about a possible launch date.
Cameron Vinklevoss stressed that he could not discuss timing to launch due to strict security laws. "However, identifying the ticker symbol and the exchange are two major events that further demonstrate that we are moving forward as expected," he added.
Although the Winklevoss ETF remains in regulatory limbo, another bitcoin fund, SecondMarket's Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT), plans to open to all investors in the fourth quarter of the year.
BIT is not an ETF, however. SecondMarket will effectively circumvent the regulatory process by transforming the BIT into an open fund for public investors. The company still needs approval from Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and OTC Markets, but it does not have to deal with all the regulatory requirements of launching an all new ETF.
The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.
Winklevoss twins become first "bitcoin billionaires"
Last Updated Dec 19, 2017 5:19 PM EST
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, twins who made a prescient $11 million investment in bitcoin, are reportedly now billionaires thanks to that 2013 bet. The brothers had first gained notoriety more than a decade ago when they unsuccessfully sued Facebook (FB) CEO Marc Zuckerberg for stealing the idea that became the world's largest social network.
It was the settlement from that earlier legal battle that funded their initial bitcoin investment. According to the UK's Telegraph newspaper, the identical twin Winklevosses are the first "bitcoin billionaires" because they purchased 100,000 bitcoins in 2013 when the digital currency's price reached a high of $1,000 in November of that year. Since then, Bitcoin has surged more than 1,700 percent, trading Tuesday at $17,362, according to Coindesk.
The brothers went on to be among the digital currency's most vocal proponents. They launched the Gemini exchange in 2016 and proposed an exchange-traded fund (ETF) backed by the price of bitcoin. Speaking to the Telegraph in 2016, Cameron Winklevoss proclaimed that he and his brother were long-term investors, and he noted that they haven't sold any of their stash of the cryptocurrency despite its meteoric price rise.
When bitcoin topped $11,000 on Nov. 29, users had difficulty accessing the Gemini website. Other exchanges had similar issues, including Coinbase , the largest exchange for buying and selling bitcoin. A spokeswoman for Gemini didn't respond to an email seeking comment for this story. The brothers didn't comment for the most recent Telegraph story either.
Earlier this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission rejected the brothers' request to launch the bitcoin ETF on the grounds that the unregulated cryptocurrency market is prone to manipulation. Regulators continue to be concerned.
The SEC today obtained a court order to halt an initial coin offering (ICO) that a Canadian man named Dominic Lacroix claimed would provide investors a 13-fold profit in less than a month. ICOs are initial sales of cryptocurrencies, similar to initial public offerings for stocks.
Bitcoin enthusiasts are expecting the launch of futures tied to the price of bitcoin to cool the market's occasional wild price swings. CBOE Global plans to trade bitcoin contracts starting on Sunday. A week later, rival CME Group plans to enter the market. According to Axios, more than 100 hedge funds specializing in cryptocurrencies have launched this year.
Critics continue to argue that the market for bitcoin and the more than 1,300 other cryptocurrencies is an overheated bubble that's bound to pop. Fans counter that digital money is superior to the usual kind because it isn't under the control of a central bank, like the Federal Reserve, and can be traded more easily since it's divisible up to eight decimal points.
Some observers may quibble with Telegraph's first "bitcoin billionaire" claims -- the anonymous creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakomoto, is thought to have holdings worth more than $19 billion. Still, market observers say the twins deserve credit for sticking with the currency despite its many travails.
"The Winklevoss twins are not the first bitcoin billionaires, but simply the ones with the biggest PR and media outreach, which cements their position as forward-thinking pioneers, and as a result, it will definitely encourage more people to buy bitcoin," said Angel Versetti, co-founder and CEO of Ambrosus, which uses so-called blockchain technology used in bitcoin to check the quality of medicine and other products.
Indeed, bitcoin's growth is extraordinary, with a market capitalization approaching nealry $293 billion, according to Coinmarketcap. Among blue-chip stocks now valued at far less than that are iconic burger chain McDonald's (MCD) at $138 billion, investment bank Morgan Stanley (MS) at $95 billion and retailer Target (TGT) at $34 billion. Bolivia's GDP last year was $79 billion.
Jonathan Berr is an award-winning journalist and podcaster based in New Jersey whose main focus is on business and economic issues.
How the Winklevoss Twins Found Vindication in a Bitcoin Fortune
The Winklevoss twins have carved an unorthodox path toward fame in the American business world.
They went to Harvard University and then on to the Olympics as rowers. Along the way, they fought a legal battle with Mark Zuckerberg over the ownership of Facebook. In the Oscar-nominated movie “The Social Network,” they were portrayed as uptight gentry, outwitted by Mr. Zuckerberg, the brilliant, budding tech mogul.
Cameron, the left-handed Winklevoss brother, and Tyler, the right-handed one, followed that with a risky bet: They used money from a $65 million settlement with Mr. Zuckerberg to load up on Bitcoin. That turned them into the first prominent virtual currency millionaires in 2013, back when Bitcoin was primarily known as a currency for online drug dealers.
More than a few people in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street saw the towering twins as the naïve — if chiseled — faces of the latest tulip bulb mania. Many still do.
But the soaring value of Bitcoin in recent months is giving the brothers a moment of vindication, and quite a bit more than that: Their Bitcoin stockpile was worth around $1.3 billion on Tuesday.
“We’ve turned that laughter and ridicule into oxygen and wind at our back,” Tyler Winklevoss said in an interview last week.
It is unclear how fleeting their vindication, or their fortune, will be. Many Bitcoin aficionados are expecting a major correction to the recent spike in its value, which has gone from $1,000 for one coin at the beginning of the year to around $18,500 on Tuesday.
If nothing else, the growing fortune of the 36-year-old Winklevoss twins is a reminder that for all the small investors getting into Bitcoin this year, the biggest winners have been a relatively small number of early holders who had plenty of money to start with and have been riding a price roller coaster for years. (The mysterious creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, is believed by researchers to be holding on to Bitcoin worth around $19 billion.)
Some of these new Bitcoin millionaires are cashing out and buying Lamborghinis, professional hockey teams or even low-risk bond funds. The Winklevoss twins, though, said they had no intention to diversify.
“We still think it is probably one of the best investments in the world and will be for the decades to come,” Tyler Winklevoss said. “And if it’s not, we’d rather live with disappointment than regret.”
They have collected an additional $350 million or so of other virtual currencies, most of it in the Bitcoin alternative called Ethereum. The brothers are also majority owners of the virtual currency exchange they founded, Gemini, which most likely takes their joint holdings to a value well over $2 billion, or enough to make each of them a billionaire.
They have sold almost none of their original holdings. While they both have apartments in downtown Manhattan, they say they live relatively spartan lives with few luxuries. Cameron drives an old S.U.V.; Tyler doesn’t have a car at all.
The Winklevoss twins’ financial rise began during their settlement with Mr. Zuckerberg in 2008. Their lawyers urged them to take the $45 million (after lawyers’ fees) in cash. But they wanted to be paid in shares of Facebook.
“The lawyers thought we were crazy,” Cameron Winklevoss said last week. “We thought they were crazy for taking cash.”
By the time Facebook went public in 2012, their stock was worth around $300 million, their rowing careers were over, and they were looking for something new.
When they began buying Bitcoin in late 2012, the price of an individual coin was below $10. Few people in Silicon Valley or on Wall Street had publicly expressed interest in the virtual currency.
Over a few months, the brothers bought 1 percent of all the outstanding Bitcoin at the time — some 120,000 tokens. As they did, the price soared, making their Bitcoin portfolio worth around $11 million by the time they went public with it in April 2013.
Their buying spree was mocked at the time, and a few of their early decisions fueled that derision. They also invested in Bitinstant, one of the first companies to trade Bitcoins online. Bitinstant’s executives, in fact, had tutored the brothers in the basics of Bitcoin.
The chief executive of Bitinstant, Charlie Shrem, was arrested in 2014, accused of helping to supply Bitcoins to users of online drug markets. Mr. Shrem pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced to a year in jail. The Winklevosses were never implicated in the wrongdoing, which happened before they became investors.
While that drama was unfolding, the twins applied to create the first Bitcoin exchange traded fund, or E.T.F., an investment product that would hold Bitcoins but be traded on stock exchanges. That brought more criticism from people who wondered why someone would buy a fund rather than Bitcoin itself. In March, regulators rejected the application.
On top of all that, until last year the price of Bitcoin was sliding and the virtual currency concept was looking wobbly. But the Winklevosses, who once bet that years of punishing rowing practices would take them to the Olympics, held their ground.
“We are very comfortable in very high-risk environments with absolutely no guarantee of success,” Tyler Winklevoss said. “I don’t mean existing in that environment for days, weeks or months. I mean year after year.”
They sold some of their tokens to pay for Gemini, a name that means twins in Latin. Like the Bitcoin E.T.F., their investment in Gemini was driven by their experience with the difficulty of buying and securely storing Bitcoin.
Every Bitcoin sits in an address that can be accessed only with the corresponding password, or private key. The problem with this system is that anyone who gets hold of a private key can easily take the Bitcoin. And unlike money taken from a bank account, stolen Bitcoin are essentially impossible to retrieve. A number of virtual currency exchanges and wallets have collectively lost billions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin to thieves.
The Winklevosses came up with an elaborate system to store and secure their own private keys. They cut up printouts of their private keys into pieces and then distributed them in envelopes to safe deposit boxes around the country, so if one envelope were stolen the thief would not have the entire key.
With Gemini, they have created a high-tech version of this process to hold customer money. Getting into the company’s wallets requires multiple signatures from cryptographically sealed devices that were never linked to the internet.
Gemini got a license from New York State regulators that allows them to hold Bitcoins for regulated banks and asset managers — something essentially no other virtual currency companies can do. That has turned Gemini into one of the most trusted destinations for sophisticated investors.
“Gemini is an underappreciated exchange, one of the few exchanges I trust as a custodian,” said Ari Paul, a managing partner at the virtual currency hedge fund BlockTower Capital.
Gemini is now expanding from its old 5,000-square-foot offices to new, 35,000-square-foot facilities in Midtown Manhattan.
This doesn’t mean Gemini or the Winklevosses have ironed out all the kinks. Like many other exchanges, Gemini has struggled to stay online in the deluge of new customers in recent weeks.
These growing pains are part of the reason the brothers say they are holding on to their Bitcoin. They believe virtual currencies are still a long way from real mainstream adoption.
They said they might look at selling when the value of all the Bitcoin in circulation approaches the value of all gold in the world — some $7 trillion or $8 trillion compared with the $310 billion value of all Bitcoin on Tuesday — given that they think Bitcoin is set to replace gold as a rare commodity. But then Tyler Winklevoss questioned even that, pointing out the ways that he believes Bitcoin is better than gold.
“In a funny way, I’m not sure we’d even sell there,” he said. “Bitcoin is more than gold — it’s a programmable store of money. It may continue to innovate.”
Follow Nathaniel Popper on Twitter: @nathanielpopper
Winklevoss Twins Used Facebook Payout to Become Bitcoin Billionaires
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss—the brothers who tried and failed to gain control of Facebook after alleging that it had been appropriated from them—have rebounded big-time.
The Winklevoss twins own one of the largest portfolios of Bitcoin in the world—and recent surges in the digital currency’s value have put the value of that portfolio at over $1 billion. That’s an impressive return on an $11 million investment just four years ago.
The brothers have reportedly not sold a single one of their Bitcoins, sitting on them and watching them accrue value. And it’s been a stunning thing to witness: when the Winklevoss’s invested in Bitcoins, the currency was trading at just $120. As of Monday morning, a single Bitcoin’s value was $11,247, according to Coindesk.
That investment money came from the $65 million the brothers’ won in a lawsuit against Facebook in 2011. The brothers had claimed Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for a social networkwhile all three were undergraduate students at Harvard, a fight that was featured in the film aptly titled The Social Network.
However, the twins have bigger designs on Bitcoin than just accruing wealth in their holdings. Earlier this year, they attempted to create an ETF for Bitcoin, but fell short after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejected the application, citing the possibility of fraud. Had they been successful, it would have opened the door to institutional investing in the currency.
While the Winklevoss twins certainly have reason to celebrate the milestone, they’re still ways away from joining the rarified air their old frienemy Mark Zuckerberg enjoys. Forbes puts his value at $71 billion.
The Winklevoss twins are making headway in their quest to get Wall Street to go big on bitcoin
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The Winklevoss twins, whose plan to launch a bitcoin exchange-traded fund has so far been thwarted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, are a step closer to making the cryptoasset more palatable to Wall Street, and possibly to regulators.
Their latest attempt at legitimacy for a bitcoin ETF: an agreement with a major exchange operator that could make it easier for big trading firms to get involved.
For the most part, big institutional traders have stayed out of cryptoassets like bitcoin. One of the many problems is that the market is far too small for them to take substantial positions. Bitcoin has a market capitalization of about $44 billion, meaning some big hedge funds could swallow the market whole. Derivatives, however, have a ceiling that’s theoretically infinite; their value is derived from another asset but can exceed that asset in market value.
Futures are one type of derivative—they allow traders to speculate on what a price will be at some later point in time. And that’s what the deal announced today (Aug. 2) enables, assuming it receives approval from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
CBOE Holdings, which runs major markets for stocks, options, and futures (and owns the rights for the famed VIX Index of volatility, sometimes called the fear gauge) now has the right to create bitcoin futures using data supplied by a bitcoin exchange called Gemini, which is run by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
The brothers, made famous by their legal battle with former Harvard classmate Mark Zuckerberg over the founding of Facebook, previously tried to list a bitcoin ETF on an exchange now owned by CBOE. The SEC shot down that attempt, citing a lack of regulation in the bitcoin market, but the agency agreed to review the matter again.
The availability of bitcoin futures could ease several issues for the big firms. Institutional traders frequently use futures to hedge their ETF positions. A bitcoin future at the CBOE, if approved, would also be a relatively easy plug-in for banks and hedge funds since it’s within a framework they’re already using. And while bitcoin was designed to bypass the traditional financial system—and thus became a notorious haven for drug dealers and cyber ransom—anchoring it in old-fashioned markets like the one for futures will ensure that it’s highly regulated, making it more attractive to big investors who want to keep the red flags to a minimum.
The Winklevoss twins cut up the key to their $1.3 billion bitcoin fortune and keep each piece in different bank vaults
- The Winklevoss twins, known for suing Mark Zuckerberg, started buying bitcoin in 2012.
- Their bitcoin holdings are now worth $1.3 billion, The New York Times reported.
- The twins keep the private key for their bitcoin fortune in multiple pieces in bank vaults around the country.
People laughed at the Winklevoss twins in 2012 when they started buying up bitcoin — lots of it.
The two Harvard-educated entrepreneurs bought about 120,000 bitcoins when they were less than $10 each, using funds they got from settling a lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg over their claim that they came up with the idea for Facebook.
But nobody's laughing at Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss anymore. They confirmed in an interview with The New York Times that they had held on to their bitcoins as the price has skyrocketed — a coin was worth about $17,800 on Tuesday afternoon.
Their bitcoin fortune is now worth about $1.3 billion, The Times reported.
"We've turned that laughter and ridicule into oxygen and wind at our back," Tyler Winklevoss told The Times.
A fortune that large needs protection. Because bitcoin is a digital currency, it can be stolen in a hack. Earlier this month, for example, one cryptocurrency-mining service said hackers had taken $80 million in bitcoin.
The Winklevoss twins use what's called a "cold wallet" system to store their bitcoin fortune.
Bitcoin resides in electronic "wallets," and each has a private key. If someone has that key, they can take your bitcoin. Printing the key — and keeping it off the internet — helps protect it from people trying to steal it.
The Winklevoss twins take it one step further — they cut up a paper printout of their private key, then stored the pieces in banks around the country.
Here's how The Times explains it:
"The Winklevosses came up with an elaborate system to store and secure their own private keys. They cut up printouts of their private keys into pieces and then distributed them in envelopes to safe deposit boxes around the country, so if one envelope were stolen the thief would not have the entire key."
The Winklevosses say they use a similar system for Gemini, the bitcoin exchange they created that's licensed in New York to hold the cryptocurrency on behalf of banks and traders. That's because if the Winklevosses were to lose their bitcoin billions, that would be a tragedy for them — but if their exchange were hacked, there would be a lot of angry financiers looking for answers.
All about Gemini, the Winklevoss Bitcoin Exchange
- More on Blockchain and Bitcoin
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Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS)
Gemini is a private, licensed digital asset exchange that also offers custodian services for digital holdings. It was launched in 2015 in the United States by the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, and has now expanded its operations to Europe and Asia. (For more, see Winklevoss Interview: Bitcoin Payment System Worth $400 Billion.) They already offer Bitcoin and Ether Trading; commencing May 19, 2018, they are set to also offer trading in Zcash. Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash are reportedly also expected to be approved. Zcash is considered a "privacy coin" and touts itself as "the first open, permissionless cryptocurrency that can fully protect the privacy of transactions using zero-knowledge cryptography."
What Is Gemini?
Competing directly against other leading cryptocurrency exchanges like Kraken and Coinbase, Gemini allows its users to buy, sell, and store primary cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin and ether, and exchange them against one another and for fiat currencies. (See also, What Is Kraken?)
The Latin word "Gemini" stands for twins, and indicates duality. The Gemini platform is conceptualized to marry both forms of money – new-age cryptocurrencies and the old, existing fiat currencies – which are expected to be used interchangeably in the future with the growing adoption of virtual currencies.
Crypto bulls the Winklevoss twins have thus far not received SEC approval for their bitcoin ETF, but they have managed to carve a niche for themselves in the cryptocurrency transactions space. (For more, see SEC Blocks Bitcoin ETFs Again; Rejected Winklevoss Bid In 2017.)
Working on the core principles of security, liquidity, and trust, Gemini offers its retail and institutional customers a platform to buy, sell, and store two of the most popular digital currencies, bitcoin and ether, in a regulated and secure environment.
The Gemini marketplace offers trading between BTC/USD, ETC/USD, and ETF/BTC. Barring the advanced notified short-term maintenance windows, the exchange operates on a 24/7 basis.
No Margin or Short Trading Allowed
All orders sent on Gemini have to be fully funded, as the exchange currently does not offer margin trading like that offered by competitor like Kraken. It also does not allow short trading.
Along with the standard market order that gets immediately filled at the best available market price at that particular instant, Gemini offers a variety of limit orders where a trader can choose to get his trade executed in a way that's best matched to his needs. They include the standard limit order, Immediate-or-Cancel (IOC), Maker-or-Cancel (MOC), and Auction-Only (AO) limit orders.
At present, purchases using a credit card, debit card, cash, or check are not available. A customer needs to link a bank account and initiate a wire transfer or an ACH deposit from a local U.S. or an international bank for trading requirements.
One can transfer bitcoin and ether tokens from his respective cryptocurrency wallet to his/her Gemini account, and vice-versa. To deposit the cryptocoins into their Gemini account, a customer needs to generate exclusive deposit addresses on the Gemini platform and then initiate the transfer from their wallet to the generated address.
First-of-a-kind Custodian Service
Along with being a standard virtual currency exchange, Gemini also offers custodian services to its clients.
It was licensed by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) to hold a customer’s digital assets in trust on behalf of the customer. That is, your digital currency holdings are held to specified capital reserve requirements and banking compliance standards. Gemini is also obligated to maintain and fulfill required cybersecurity measures.
Gemini has a banking relationship with a New York State-chartered bank, where all customer funds are retained. Adherence to such requirements acts like a insurance of one’s funds and cryptocurrency holdings, and ensures that they are backed by adequate monetary reserves.
While individual customers are given the default, zero-fee, depository account type, large institutional customers can opt for a segregated custody account type which offers an offline, secure, and auditable storage called Gemini’s proprietary Cold Storage system. The latter service is chargeable, and is ideal for institutional customers like mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and hedge funds.
The Road So Far
Launched in January 2015, the exchange went live for customers in the United States in October 2015.
By June 2016, it started operations in Canada, enabling ETH/BTC trading for Canadian customers. Two weeks later, it opened its doors for U.K. customers, marking its entry in Europe.
In September 2016, Gemini introduced the first-ever daily bitcoin auction, a method popularly followed in all modern stock exchanges but was the first for a cryptocurrency exchange. Daily ether auctions were launched in July 2017.
Between October and November of 2016, Gemini further expanded to Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan to cater to the skyrocketing population of Asian cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
In December 2017, Gemini partnered with the CBOE which launched the first-ever cash-settled bitcoin futures contract whose prices are based on Gemini’s auction price for bitcoin, denominated in U.S. dollars.
Recent Challenges
As with any standard marketplace or security exchange, Gemini has had its fair share of challenges along its two-year journey. Some were due to developments in the cryptocurrency world like hard forks and high price volatility, while others were due to Gemini’s infrastructure and platform performance.
Following the Ethereum hard fork in July 2016, the exchange ran into issues and had to temporarily disable all ether deposits and withdrawals. (See also: An Introduction to Ethereum Classic.)
Preventive measures were taken, but similar issues occurred during the bitcoin hard fork of bitcoin cash in August 2017. During the same month, Gemini’s production environment, which was set on Amazon Web Services (AWS), exceeded the allotted resource quota, and hit trading snags for many hours over a couple of days. The problem was resolved after Gemini opted for more web resources to address such issues.
In November 2017, due to an unprecedented increase in traffic amid surging bitcoin prices, customers lost access to Gemini’s Web and API interfaces for a number of hours.
Another issue erupted in December 2017, when Gemini had to extend its earlier announced maintenance window by several hours amid high volatility in bitcoin prices that shed $1,500 during the downtime, drawing customer ire.
The Bottom Line
With the recent successful settlement of the first-ever Bitcoin Futures (January series) at a price of $10,900.00 as determined by Gemini’s 4 p.m. Eastern Time BTC/USD auction, Gemini continues to surge ahead in the cryptocurrency transaction marketplace.
Gemini’s current offerings allow only among bitcoin, ether and USD pairs, and with limited trading options without any short selling or margin trading. However, customers can look forward to a secure and regulated trading environment as the firm's operations and holdings adhere to necessary regulatory standards.
Going forward, Gemini may need to expand its product offerings and look for expansion options around the world as it competes against established players like Kraken and Coinbase. (For more, see Tyler Winklevoss: Bitcoin Is Gold, Ether Is Oil, Litecoin Is a Testnet.)
Investing in cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings ("ICOs") is highly risky and speculative, and this article is not a recommendation by Investopedia or the writer to invest in cryptocurrencies or ICOs. Since each individual's situation is unique, a qualified professional should always be consulted before making any financial decisions. Investopedia makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy or timeliness of the information contained herein. As of the date this article was written, the author owns no cryptocurrencies.
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New York’s attorney general has a few questions for the Winklevoss twins.
State AG Eric Schneiderman said Tuesday it sent letters to 13 cryptocurrency exchanges, asking for information about their general operations, personnel, and policies around privacy, fraud and money laundering.
That includes the New York-based Gemini exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the Harvard-educated twins who famously tangled with Mark Zuckerberg over who founded Facebook.
“We look forward to cooperating with and submitting our responses to the questionnaire that has been circulated,” Gemini CEO Tyler Winklevoss said in a statement. “We continue to embrace thoughtful regulation and collaboration on our mission to help build the future of money.”
The probe comes as the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are cracking down on the trading of digital currencies, including small and lightly traded ones that are minted through so-called initial coin offerings.
“With cryptocurrency on the rise, consumers in New York and across the country have a right to transparency and accountability when they invest their money,” Schneiderman said in a statement.
Bitcoin has also collapsed more than 50 percent from its peak of more than $19,200 in December to about $8,000 on Tuesday.
Similar virtual currencies, like Ether and Ripple, have also had volatile rides this year as governments around the world have cracked down.
In addition to Gemini, letters went to exchanges including Coinbase, bitFlyer, Bitfinex, Kraken, Binance, Gate.io and itBit.
In his letter to the exchanges, Schneiderman called the virtual currencies “a highly speculative sector, featuring significant volatility, instability, and risk.”
“Moreover, published reports indicate the sector has attracted fraudsters, market manipulators, and thieves,” Schneiderman wrote.
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