- Gemini has announced its plans to open a crypto derivatives platform outside the United States.
- Gemini Foundation’s first offering will be a BTC perpetual contract denominated in GUSD.
- The new platform will be available to clients in dozens of non-U.S. countries including Singapore, Brazil, and India.
- News of the new platform comes amid rumors of Coinbase setting up an offshore derivatives platform.
Gemini is following in the footsteps of rival crypto exchange Coinbase and setting up an offshore crypto platform. The American exchange announced earlier today that it plans to launch Gemini Foundation, a crypto derivatives platform based outside the United States. The move comes after rumors about Coinbase setting up a similar platform in Bermuda amid intensifying regulatory crackdown by regulators in the United States.
Gemini Steps Up Global Expansion Efforts
According to a blog post from the Winklevoss-owned crypto exchange, the first offering of the Gemini Foundation will be a BTC perpetual contract denominated in the GUSD stablecoin. The crypto derivatives platform will subsequently launch an ETH/GUSD perpetual contract. The derivatives offerings will reportedly expand in the coming months.
“Gemini Foundation will allow eligible customers to leverage their crypto assets to achieve long or short crypto exposure in order to manage risk, generate returns, and gain directional exposure.”
The platform’s offerings will not be limited to derivatives. Customers from over thirty countries will be able to trade spot products as well. These countries include Singapore, Hong Kong, India, El Salvador, Thailand, Bermuda, Brazil, and South Korea, among several others. The platform will not be available to customers in the United States.
Funding the account will require customers to convert their USD and USD Coin to GUSD on a 1:1 basis. Perpetual funding payments will have to be made exclusively in GUSD. Traders on the platform will be allowed to trade using a maximum leverage of 100x, with 20x being the default. News of the new platform comes just hours after Gemini announced
that it would be opening its second-largest engineering hub in India as part of its global expansion. The exchange also appointed its Chief Technology Officer, Pravjit Tiwana, as the Chief Executive Officer of the Asia Pacific Region (APAC).
