Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are set to launch a bitcoin exchange that could help stimulate demand for the cryptocurrency among institutional investors ahead of a potential bitcoin exchange traded fund.
The New York State Department of Financial Services granted a charter to the Gemini, which will allow the charter to operate as a trust bank and as a regulated financial services institution, reports Phillip Stafford for the Financial Times.
The exchange will act as a way for investors who want to trade bitcoins and have it linked with a normal bank account. The Winklevoss twins see this as an opportunity to court institutional investors.
“Even though this path was more costly and time-consuming, it was necessary to fulfill our goal of serving institutional customers,” Cameron Winklevoss, president of Gemini, told the Financial Times.
“Our plan for it is to be a like a Nasdaq for bitcoin,” Tyler Winklevoss previously told ETF Trends. “People can go to it and buy and sell bitcoin like they go to Nasdaq to buy and sell a security.”
The new Gemini Trust Co. would create a stable and reliable way to trade bitcoins, which could attract institutional investors.
“Bringing them (investors) into the fold is going to be a large catalyst for bitcoin,” Cameron Winklevoss told the Wall Street Journal.
Gemini is the third bitcoin-related institution to acquire regulatory approval and the second to be granted a charter by the DFS to a bitcoin-related business. Circle Internet Financial received the first BitLicense earlier this month and ItBit received a charter in spring.
Gemini is also the second bitcoin-related product that the Winklevoss twins have launched. Back in February 2014, Winklevoss Capital launched the Winkdex, a bitcoin index that will eventually be used for a planned bitcoin ETF, “COIN,” which was first proposed in 2013 but is still waiting on regulatory approval. [Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF Takes One More Step Forward]
For more information on bitcoins, visit our bitcoin category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.