Gemini Exchange Review

What is Gemini Exchange?

Gemini brand is well-recognizable in the crypto community and even beyond. As we found out, the exchange was started by the twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in the year 2015. The exchange is headquartered in New York, under the name Gemini Trust Company LLC.

It is hard to deny that crypto industry is still in its infancy, which makes it somewhat complicated to distinguish the trusted exchange from the dishonest one. Fortunately, in case of Gemini, one can put aside any doubts. In fact, Gemini Trust Company LLC is entirely regulated under the purview of the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS). With official regulation in place, Gemini has to comply with the capital reserve requirements, the cybersecurity requirements and banking compliance standards defined by the NYSDFS as well as the New York Banking Law. This definitely instills confidence in this crypto exchange. Therefore, is Gemini scam? Clearly not.

However, Gemini has a limited regional availability. In other words, traders can enjoy Gemini services provided that they come from the US (45 states currently), the United Kingdom, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Puerto Rico.

How Secure is Gemini?

Although Gemini is safe from the legal standpoint, we wondered about its technical security and the funds’ protection. Hacks and data breaches are not uncommon for exchanges, so how does Gemini keep up?

First of all, Gemini implements 2FA (two-factor authentication) to protect the trader’s account. Secondly, the biggest portion of Gemini digital assets is held under lock and key in the specialized cold storages. The rest is stored online in hot wallets while being hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS). The latter introduces even more security layers since safety features on AWS include tiered-access controls, multi-factor authentication etc.

So, is Gemini safe? In our opinion, Gemini preserves high-security standards that certainly make it one of the safest exchanges in the market.

Opening an Account at Gemini Exchange

The registration process at Gemini is quick and intuitive. More specifically, one simply has to provide the name, email, and password at the account opening stage. Upon email verification, Gemini will request the user to submit the address, phone number, and personal ID. Once done, the user can access all of the Gemini services and make the transfers.

Gemini Deposits & Withdrawals Review

As soon as the user opens the account, it is necessary to fund it. Gemini offers several options to do it.

• BTC, ETH, ZEC Wallet transfer
• Bank and Wire Transfer in USD
• ACH (the US only)

One should also keep in mind that there are particular limits set on the ACH transfers. Namely, the individual account holder can deposit maximum $500 per day, and/or $15,000 per month. For institutional accounts, the threshold is higher – $10,000 a day, $300,000 a month.

Our Gemini review found out that the exchange does not impose any fees on deposits and withdrawals. There is, however, an exception to outline concerning the cryptocurrency withdrawals. According to Gemini transfer policy, the exchange does not charge withdrawal fees on BTC, ETH, ZEC transfers if the number of withdrawals does not exceed 10 per calendar month. Otherwise, any extra withdrawal per calendar month will incur the specific fee. For example, for Bitcoin, the amount charged is 0.002 BTC.

Gemini Supported Cryptocurrencies Review

At the moment of this writing, Gemini currently supports only 3 virtual currencies – Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Zcash. Overall, there are 6 currency pairs offered – BTC/USD, ETH/USD, ETH/BTC, ZEC/USD, ZEC/BTC, ZEC/ETH.

Without a doubt, the poor selection of cryptos on the platform is an apparent drawback for many Gemini reviews. For this reason, Gemini seriously considers adding new virtual currencies to its platform soon. As for now, the exchange announced that Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash will be available in the nearest future.

Gemini Marketplace

All the buying and selling is conducted on the proprietary platform – Gemini Marketplace, available 24/7. Gemini Marketplace was designed to complement the full reserve exchange structure. In other words, there is no possibility of margin trading here. Instead, the platform allows placing a limitless number of orders, with different types of them to choose for the selected pair.

• Market Orders
• Limit Orders
• Immediate or Cancel (IOC) Limit Orders
• Market or Cancel (MOC) Limit Orders

Besides the regular buying/selling, Gemini also hosts the auctions for the particular currency pairs every day, including weekends. One can expect the elevated liquidity and price discovery during the auctions, which can be advantageous for the trader.

From a technical point of view, Gemini Marketplace offers pretty basic functionality. This means that there are is a simple price chart, no technical indicators, overlays or customization tools are available.

Trading Fees at Gemini Exchange

The trading fees at Gemini depend on the volume and the fee type (i.e taker, maker or auction fee).  At the time of this Gemini review 2018, both maker and auction fees start at 1% but can go as low as 0% provided that the necessary volume level is reached. On the other hand, the initial taker fee is set at 1% but can be discounted maximum to 0.1%. You can see the full schedule below.

Customer Support

Gemini client support is represented merely by email. Unfortunately, communication means like the phone or live chat are currently unavailable. It takes a while for the email support agents to revert, taking from several days to 1 month depending on the individual experience.

The indirect support, however, is not that bad. Gemini offers great multi-sectional FAQ to cover most of the common issues and questions.

Gemini Exchange Opinion

So, is Gemini legit? Well, we can say that Gemini is a highly secure and a reputable cryptocurrency exchange. It is also a good beginner friendly place to buy the popular cryptos like Bitcoin or Ethereum.

However, there is a lot to be desired in terms of the offered cryptocurrencies – there are just very few of them. The same remark goes to the customer support, as the website noticeably lacks live chat and phone support. Lastly, Gemini has a pretty limited customer base, as they provide their services exclusively to certain countries. Hence, the international availability of the exchange is restricted.