Countdown to the 2020s: The Decade of Crypto

Today, we stand before the dawn of a new decade. As we look ahead, there is little doubt that the next one — the 2020s — will be ‘the decade of crypto.’ As the sun sets on the last 10 years, which ushered in Bitcoin and crypto as we know it, it is with great pride that we look back on 2019 and with great excitement that we look forward to what’s to come.

It’s been more than four years since we launched the Gemini Spaceship into the great, beautiful unknown. While our voyage has covered much ground, it is just beginning. While our mission — to empower the individual through crypto — has accomplished much, it is far from over.

2019 has been a building year for both Gemini and our industry. Despite a crypto winter that has persisted for more than two years, we have stayed focused on quietly laying the foundation for the next wave of use-cases and mainstream adoption. Below are some of our 2019 highlights:

• Gemini Custody™ - we expanded our Qualified Custodian offering to support 18 cryptos (more to come in 2020). We introduced new features, such as Instant Liquidity, which allows you to instantly trade your crypto held in custody on our exchange without waiting for it to be transferred out of cold storage.
• State Street Pilot - we were selected by State Street for its new digital asset pilot. As part of the pilot, financial institutions can now custody their digital assets with Gemini Custody™ and receive reporting and holdings information via State Street.
• SOC 2  - we completed a SOC 2 Type 1 examination and are currently undergoing a SOC 2 Type 2 examination.
• Sub-Accounts - we released sub-accounts which allow you to  create and manage multiple accounts with distinct sets of users, account balances, and unique crypto addresses all under a single master account.
• Gemini Clearing™- we launched a fully-electronic clearing and settlement solution for off-exchange or over-the-counter (OTC) crypto trades.
• SEN Network - we joined the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN), which allows our institutional customers to deposit and withdraw U.S. dollars 24/7/365.
• Index Inclusion - we joined the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR) and CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index (BRTI). We also joined the Bitmex .BXBT and .BETH indexes.
• Global Expansion - we launched in Australia and hired Julian Sawyer to lead our expansion into the UK and Europe in 2020 — get ready!
• New Hires - we welcomed a new Chief Security Officer and Chief Compliance Officer aboard the Gemini Spaceship.
• Gemini Chicago - we opened an office in Chicago. If you are interested in joining us in Chicago, New York, or Portland, Oregon, check out our careers page.
• Nifty Gateway™ - We made our first acquisition! We believe that art and collectibles on the blockchain — in the form of non-fungible tokens or ‘nifities’ — will become a significant medium of expression and creativity. Nifty Gateway™ is user-friendly a bridge into this new world.
• Advancing Payments - we partnered with Flexa so that you can spend your Gemini dollars and other cryptos at select retailers across the country. We also teamed up with BitPay, the largest global blockchain payments provider, so that you can pay your bills with Gemini dollars.
• Virtual Commodity Association - we participated as members in helping the VCA stand up six committees focused on topics such as custody, insurance, and market integrity. Our Head of Risk, Yusuf Hussain, was appointed President of the VCA’s Board of Directors.

Today, crypto is still a niche technology and form of money. It is not crucial to your everyday life the way email and other web applications are, but our thesis is that this will change — it’s already changing if you look close enough. This is because crypto makes decentralization possible, which is to say its raison d'etre and center of gravity is the empowerment of the individual.

Within this decade, crypto will redesign the Internet, the financial system, and money in a way that fosters and protects the rights and dignity of the individual. This means it will make as great of a contribution to your personal freedom as the invention of the printing press, the personal computer, and the early Internet.

That’s progress and ultimately why crypto will work. It is too fair to ignore; its gravitational pull, too strong to deny. When given the choice, you will choose more freedom, not less. And that’s why you, and everyone else, will choose crypto.

Here’s to the 2020s...the future is you.

Onward and Upward,

Tyler + Cameron