Winklevoss Twins’ Gemini To Launch Cryptocurrency Block Trading As Bitcoin Price Plunges
The Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, will launch cryptocurrency block trading through their digital-asset exchange Gemini starting on April 12.
Cameron made the announcement April 9 on the Gemini website. “We are excited to launch Gemini Block Trading, a fully electronic block trading facility,” he wrote. “Block Trading enables our customers to buy and sell large quantities of digital assets outside of Gemini’s continuous order books, creating an additional mechanism to source liquidity when trading in greater size.”
The service will compete with companies that cater to institutional investors by enabling traders to buy or sell large quantities of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Block-trading companies have already opened in Australia, Hong Kong, and other markets in response to rising demand from institutional buyers and hedge funds, Bloomberg reported.
Cameron Winklevoss said Gemini will electronically broadcast block orders to ensure a transparent and rules-based marketplace. The Gemini Block Trading service will go live at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time on April 12.
Bitcoin Price Nosedives
This move by the Winklevoss twins, who are avowed bitcoin bulls, is perhaps another signal that the cryptocurrency market is ascendant despite the recent plunge of bitcoin prices and the accompanying tanking of other virtual currencies.
In December 2017, the price of one bitcoin (BTC) hovered at $19,000. Today, bitcoin is trading at about $6,700.
Bitcoin prices have been decimated during the past three weeks amid a barrage of negative news, including cryptocurrency ad bans by social media giant Twitter and search-engine monopoly Google.
There have also been regulatory crackdowns in Asia and the United States. Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission shut down the cryptocurrency firm Centra Tech Inc., which had used boxing champ Floyd Mayweather and music producer DJ Khaled to promote their initial coin offering (ICO).
In a notice, the SEC accused Centra of raising more than $32 million from thousands of investors by offering unregistered securities through a fraudulent ICO.
Bitcoin Evangelists: Crypto Is Here to Stay
Despite the wave of bad news infecting the digital currency space, bitcoin bulls like the Winklevoss twins are convinced crypto is here to stay.
Billionaire Changpeng Zhao — the founder of top cryptocurrency exchange Binance — said he has zero doubts about the future of crypto. “I’m convinced 100 percent that crypto is the future,” Zhao said. “I just know it will happen.”
In February 2018, Forbes released its first-ever list of cryptocurrency billionaires.
Zhao landed at No. 3 in the rankings, with an estimated net worth topping $1.1 billion. The Winklevoss twins edged in at No. 4, with a combined net worth topping $900 million.
Forbes 2018 List of the Richest People in Crypto (Net Worth)
- Chris Larsen, Co-founder of Ripple: $7.5 to $8 billion
- Joseph Lubin, Co-founder of Ethereum: $1 billion to $1.5 billion
- Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance: $1.1 billion to $2 billion
- Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Co-founders of Gemini: $900 million to $1.1 billion
- Matthew Mellon, Individual investor: $900 million to $1 billion
- Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase: $900 million to $1 billion
- Matthew Roszak, Co-founder of Bloq: $900 million to $1 billion
- Anthony Di Iorio, Co-founder of Ethereum: $750 million to $1 billion
- Brock Pierce, Chairman of Bitcoin Foundation: $700 million to $1 billion
- Michael Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital: $700 million to $1 billion
- Brendan Blumer, CEO of Block.one: $600 million to $700 million
- Dan Larimer, CTO in Block.one: $600 million to $700 million
- Valery Vavilov, CEO of Bitfury: $500 million to $700 million
- Charles Hoskinson, Co-founder of Ethereum and IOHK (Cardano): $500 million to $600 million
- Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple: $400 million to $500 million
- Barry Silbert, CEO of Digital Currency Group: $400 million to $500 million
- Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum: $400 million to $500 million
