Gemini lands Irish e-money licence

The cryptocurrency exchange founded by the brothers who sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, accusing him of stealing their idea, has been granted an electronic money license from the Irish central bank.

New York-based Gemini, founded in 2014 by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, allows retail investors to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies and invest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

It applied for its Irish licence in early 2020 and set up an office in Dublin last year.

Gemini, which was recently valued at over $7bn following a $400m funding round, joins the likes of Meta, Google and Stripe which have also been approved to use electronic money in Ireland.

It has already been approved to use electronic money in the UK by the FCA, one of the first crypto firms in the UK to do so.

Peter Oakes, the founder of Fintech Ireland, told The Irish Times that he thinks Gemini will also try and secure an Irish crypto-asset registration like it has in the UK and other markets.

“Gemini doesn’t provide services in Ireland [yet] but residents in other member states can open accounts," he said.

“The combination of an e-money authorisation and a virtual asset services provider registration should provide Irish consumers and corporates a fuller range of Gemini’s digital assets and non-fungible tokens service such as buying and selling, interest on accounts, payments, credit cards and e-wallets."

The Winklevoss brothers famously won a $65m settlement from Facebook after claiming  Zuckerberg had stolen their idea for a Harvard social network.

Facebook has always rigorously rejected the claims from the brothers, who rowed in the 2008 Olympics, but agreed to the settlement to end what it called "rancorous litigation".

The bothers are both billionaires through their stakes in Gemini and other crypto investments.

"Gemini securing this Electronic Money Institution authorisation from the Central Bank of Ireland is a testament to the rigorous standards of our customer protection and compliance programs,"  Gemini said in a statement.

"Ireland is an international hub for financial services and emerging technologies, and consumers here have a strong interest in innovative fintech products. 

“We look forward to bringing our secure and simple services to individuals and institutions in the Irish market and across Europe more broadly."