Nasdaq to Invest $50M in Winklevoss Twins' Gemini Crypto Exchange

Gemini, the cryptocurrency exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, is preparing to go public with Nasdaq as its listing venue.

According to a statement from Nasdaq, Gemini will provide its custody and staking services on a nonexclusive basis to Nasdaq clients, while Gemini’s institutional users will have access to Calypso’s collateral management capabilities across traditional and digital assets.

Gemini is aiming for a Nasdaq debut on Friday under the ticker GEMI, though the timeline could change depending on market conditions, the report added.

The Reuters report noted that the offering comes amid a rebound in U.S. equity capital markets, where strong first-day performances from companies like Figma have encouraged more private firms to test investor appetite. Crypto names have also been active in recent months, including Circle and Bullish, whose IPOs drew significant institutional demand.

If completed, Gemini’s flotation would make it the third publicly traded U.S. crypto exchange, following Coinbase, which this year became the first crypto trading platform to join the S&P 500, and Bullish (CoinDesk's parent company).

Expanding in Europe

Beyond its U.S. listing plans, Gemini is also deepening its presence in Europe. In a Sept. 5 blog post, the company announced a suite of new products for more than 400 million investors across the European Union and European Economic Area.

The rollout includes staking services for ETH and SOL and the launch of Gemini Perpetuals, a regulated derivatives offering that allows customers to trade perpetual contracts with leverage of up to 100x and no fixed expiration dates. Both products are being offered under European regulatory frameworks: staking is overseen through Gemini’s newly established Malta entity under MiCA approval, while derivatives fall under MiFID II rules, which govern traditional financial markets.

Mark Jennings, Gemini’s CEO for Europe, said the company’s goal is to make staking and derivatives accessible through a secure, easy-to-use platform. Staking, he noted, allows investors to earn rewards by contributing crypto to blockchain validation pools, while perpetual contracts give professional traders more ways to manage risk or take directional bets on the market.

Gemini said its staking service supports flexible pools with no minimum deposits, daily accrual of rewards and yields of up to 6% APR for SOL. For perpetuals, the exchange emphasized that positions can be collateralized with assets already in spot accounts, denominated in USDC, and managed within the same interface as spot trading.

The company framed these moves as part of a broader strategy to make Europe a cornerstone of its business. Jennings said the introduction of MiCA gives the EU a chance to lead globally on crypto regulation, setting standards across all 30 jurisdictions and providing investors with greater confidence.

“Europe continues to be a strategic focus for Gemini,” Jennings said in the blog post. “With MiCA, the region can set the global benchmark for clear, consistent crypto rules.”

Updated at 7:57 p.m. UTC:

Made a few small changes to make the nature of the partnership between Nasdaq and Gemini more clear.

A Nasdaq spokesperson provided the following statement via email:

"We continue to expand our capabilities to serve our institutional clients and the broader investor universe as the regulatory landscape around crypto assets evolves. To prepare for future developments while maintaining an open-ecosystem approach to market infrastructure, we will partner with Gemini on a non-exclusive basis as part of a broader strategy to offer multi-custodial and staking services for crypto assets.

"Additionally, we will work with Gemini as a distribution partner for Nasdaq Calypso, to serve firms seeking to benefit from its collateral management capabilities across traditional and digital assets. The investment and partnership structure we have employed with Gemini is consistent with those that we typically structure through Nasdaq Ventures."