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Winklevoss Twins Receive Approval To Launch New Bitcoin Exchange ‘Gemini’

Gemini

The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) has finally given approval to Gemini, the bitcoin exchange started by twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

The company is now allowed to operate as a chartered limited liability trust company, reports TechCrunch. This is different than a BitLicense, a license issued by the NYSDFS for businesses that deal in bitcoins – and will be subject to stricter regulatory approval.

CEO of Gemini Tyler said that they applied for the limited liability trust company charter rather than the BitLicense “because we wanted to build an exchange that both Main Street and Wall Street could use and trust.”

We didn’t apply for a BitLicense because we wanted to build an exchange that both Main Street and Wall Street could use and trust, so we decided to obtain a limited liability trust company charter in order to do so.

Gemini will accept both fiat and bitcoin deposits, which will be held in a New York FDIC insurance-eligible bank and cold storage offline, respectively.

In an interview with Fortune in July, Tyler and Cameron commented that they wanted to launch their company much sooner, but that the “bottleneck of waiting for a charter is exactly what sets Gemini apart.”

The brothers want their company to be viewed as the most above-board option for buying and selling bitcoin.

Cameron says they aim to be mainstream, an approach that will “benefit everybody in bitcoin.” Waiting for the licensing to come through, rather than leave New York as many other businesses did, is an important market the other companies will miss out on, Cameron said.

I think they’re missing out on a really important market. Our view is a little different: it’s to be more mainstream and interact through the front door with regulators. Our approach is going to benefit everybody in bitcoin. An approach where you avoid New York might be more beneficial to you, but I don’t think it actually pushes the entire ocean of bitcoin up.

In August, the CEO of Mt. Gox, Mark Karpeles was arrested in Japan for allegedly stealing millions of dollars in bitcoins from clients.

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