Gemini expands to six European countries

As the company sees it, launching in these six countries represents progress in Gemini’s rollout across Europe. They want to build this expansion on a foundation of positive engagement with regulators and policymakers to obtain relevant authorizations and registrations.

The launch means that users from these newly ‘conquered’ European countries can open a Gemini account to deposit, trade, and custody over 100 cryptocurrencies. The introduction of cryptocurrency services in the region is targeted at both individuals and institutions.

For individual use advanced traders can deploy the crypto exchange’s crypto trading interface, Active Trader. On the other hand, institutional clients can go for the exchange’s institutional-grade platform.

The platform is available to financial institutions and corporations. It offers custody, clearing, trade execution, price discovery, and portfolio management services all in one place. The exchange noted that the collaboration meant customers of the bank will not be required to enter their bank details or pay any additional fees to make deposits into their accounts.

Bouncing back

This new trajectory is contrary to the downsizing wave that swept through Gemini during the recent crypto market turmoil. As we analysed in early October, Gemini cut about 10% of its 1,000 employees, and exchanges Crypto.com and BlockFi took the same decision, firing 5% and 20% of their workforces, affecting some 260 and 170 employees, respectively. At the time, Robinhood had also fired 713 employees following a drop in revenue, just three months after it already reduced its headcount by 9%.

On a positive note, Gemini’s further expansion into European markets complements its recent emergence as the first crypto exchange to be approved as a virtual asset service provider (VASP) by the Central Bank of Ireland. Meanwhile, in July, Gemini struck a partnership deal with Plaid, an open banking and payments platform, to enable the bank's UK customers to buy cryptos through their bank accounts.

The rise of crypto payments

We recently analysed the impact that crypto is having on the payments market. Research done by Deloitte in collaboration with PayPal shows that merchants believe many of their customers currently have a significant interest in using digital currencies for payments.

Moreover, they are convinced that customer interest will increase in time, and nearly 75% reported plans to accept stablecoin payments, and almost the same reported plans to accept cryptocurrency payments, both by 2024. A refinement of regulations around crypto has also triggered huge interest in this space. If a few years ago the industry players were complaining because it lacks, things are slowly evolving and the regulatory landscape for cryptocurrency has become very dynamic, both within national jurisdictions as well as at a global level (if you think of IMF and BIS active involvement).