“Our position from day one was to ask for permission, not forgiveness”. All fiat currency transferred to Gemini will be deposited in a New York State chartered bank, headquartered in midtown Manhattan, and eligible for Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
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Tyler Winklevoss, CEO, Gemini, says: “We didn’t apply for a BitLicense because we wanted to build an exchange that both Main Street and Wall Street could use and trust, so we chose to obtain a limited liability trust company charter in order to do so”. The service will be open to both individual and institutional investors although the twins are said to be focusing their efforts on attracting the latter type of clientele.
Albanese said the department conducted a rigorous review of that application, including but not limited to the company’s anti-money laundering, capitalization, consumer protection, and cyber security standards. The company plans to expand its coverage area rapidly to include “additional USA states, Europe, Asia and other jurisdictions”, Tyler Winklevoss said. Virtual currency deposits will be held in an offline storage, the Journal reports, while fiat deposits will be kept with Signature Bank.
Bloomberg’s Olga Kharif reports that Gemini is now the second bitcoin-based firm to be designated as a trust. In February 2014, it launched its own bitcoin index, the Winkdex.
To view a copy of Gemini’s NYDFS charter authorization certificate, please visit, link. Getting banking approval, it seems, is the first step for the digital currency ecosystem to gain a spot in the mainstream financial world.
The Winklevoss twins had several options when it came to operating in New York as the state recently issued a new kind of license geared specifically at bitcoin companies called a BitLicense.
“Smart, targeted regulation that helps protect consumers and prevent illicit activity is vital to the long-term future of this industry”.
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To date, three bitcoin firms have received charters or licenses from the NYDFS. In September, 2015 DFS granted the first BitLicense application to a virtual currency firm, Circle Internet Financial.
