:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-890301296-9a545eea787e4fa4b7a2a109dfc74eef.jpg "The Winklevoss Twins Are Behind Crypto’s Next Big IPO. Here’s What You Need to Know.")
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Key Takeaways
- Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, set to go public, which would mark another high-profile crypto IPO in a year that has already seen a few.
- IPO documents show plans to sell 16.66 million shares at an expected offering range of $17 to $19, indicating a market cap of $2.1 billion at the midpoint.
Crypto’s next high-profile initial public offering involves a set of twins credited with being the world’s first bitcoin billionaires.
Brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who landed in the public eye through their early involvement in the social media platform then called Facebook, now Meta (META), plan to list Gemini Space Station, which operates the crypto exchange they founded in 2014, on the Nasdaq under the symbol “GEMI,” according to a filing. Gemini’s public debut looks like the next notable IPO to come out of crypto, following stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) and Peter Thiel-backed crypto exchange Bullish (BLSH).
The company intends to sell some 16.7 million shares at a range of $17 to $19, indicating a market valuation of $2.1 billion at the midpoint, the filing showed. At that price, the company is expected to net roughly $272 million in proceeds. Tyler will be Gemini’s CEO, and Cameron its president.
What to Know About Gemini’s Business
Gemini is among the more well-known crypto exchanges in the U.S., competing with the largest, Coinbase (COIN); the oldest, Kraken; and more recent entrants like Robinhood (HOOD). The company said crypto’s total addressable market could expand over the next decades, capturing “multi-trillion-dollar opportunities,” according to its filing.
Like its rivals, the company makes money on transaction fees when users trade on the platform or use it to hold their digital assets, and via ancillary businesses that include the Gemini dollar (GUSDUSD) stablecoin and a credit card. Bitcoin and ether accounted for 74% and 14%, respectively, of the $18.2 billion of assets on the platform as of June 30, according to the firm. The company generated $68.6 million in revenue and a net loss of $282.5 million in the first half of the year.
Gemini has had about $285 billion of total trading volume over its lifetime through the end of July. For context, while not quite an apples-to-apples comparison, the much larger Coinbase had about $237 billion in trading volume in their most recent quarter.
Gemini’s next chapter follows a difficult one, during which its yield-bearing Earn program was caught up in the crypto collapse of 2022, when several major companies including Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX filed for bankruptcy and customers were left in the lurch. Gemini Earn customers who participated in that program were unable to withdraw their assets from the platform starting in November 2022, but were made whole in 2024, receiving their funds on the platform back in-kind, as opposed to cash payouts.
Who Are the Winklevoss Twins?
The Winklevoss twins—sometimes colloquially called the “Winkelvii”—flex considerable crypto influence.
They each donated $1 million worth of bitcoin to President Donald Trump’s election campaign in 2024. Earlier this year, they poured $21 million into a super PAC aimed at supporting pro-crypto candidates with an eye on the 2026 mid-term elections. Also, they invested in Trump-linked bitcoin miner American Bitcoin Corp. (ABTC).
The Winklevoss twins were portrayed by Armie Hammer and Josh Pence—the former’s face superimposed over that of the latter—in the movie “The Social Network.”
