Gemini review

4.4Last reviewed 2026-08-23

Gemini is the regulatory heavyweight of the US exchanges. Founded in 2014 by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, it operates through Gemini Trust Company, a limited-purpose trust company chartered by the New York Department of Financial Services in October 2015, which is why it serves every US state including New York, the state most platforms sit out. It was among the first exchanges to complete both SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 examinations, and the exchange itself has never suffered a major hack.

The blemish on the record is Gemini Earn, the lending program frozen in November 2022 when its partner Genesis collapsed. The story ended better than most: Earn users received their digital assets back in kind through May and June 2024, roughly 232% of the dollar value at the time of the freeze, alongside a $37 million NYDFS penalty and a $40 million contribution from Gemini. The SEC's related lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice in January 2026, and the company listed on Nasdaq as GEMI in September 2025, raising about $425 million.

The trade-off is price. Instant buys on the web and mobile interface carry a convenience fee of roughly half a percent plus a flat transaction fee, which is more than Kraken Pro or Binance.US charge. ActiveTrader, its volume-tiered maker and taker interface, is far cheaper and the right place for anything beyond pocket-size orders. Funding covers ACH, wire, debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal, the broadest verified rail set of any US exchange we track.

Visit GeminiOpens www.gemini.com

Founded: 2014
Headquarters: New York, United States
Fees: Instant buys carry a convenience fee of about 0.5% plus a flat transaction fee. ActiveTrader uses volume-tiered maker and taker pricing that is far cheaper for anything beyond small orders.
KYC: Required
Payment methods: ACH transfer, Wire transfer, Credit or debit card, Apple Pay
Status: Operating

How you can pay on Gemini

Every deposit rail Gemini supports in at least one market. Which of them you can use depends on your country; the country guides below list the exact methods per market.

ACH (United States): ACH transfer
International wire: Wire transfer
Card: Credit or debit card
Pay wallet: Apple Pay Google Pay
Local e-wallet: PayPal

As published by Gemini: ACH transfer (US), Wire transfer, Debit card, Apple Pay and Google Pay, PayPal.

Where Gemini offers each rail, country by country

Pros and cons

What works

NYDFS trust charter since 2015, so it serves all 50 states including New York
SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 examinations completed, with no major hack of the exchange itself
The broadest verified US funding set we track: ACH, wire, debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal
A Nasdaq-listed public company since September 2025, with the disclosure obligations that brings

What to watch

Instant-buy pricing is among the highest of the major US exchanges; ActiveTrader is the only cheap way in
The Earn program froze customer assets for about eighteen months in 2022 to 2024, even though users were made whole in kind

Fees in detail

maker: Volume-tiered on ActiveTrader, falling with 30-day volume
taker: Volume-tiered on ActiveTrader, falling with 30-day volume
spread note: Instant buys on web and mobile include a convenience fee of roughly 0.5% plus a flat transaction fee; use ActiveTrader for the published maker and taker rates.
deposit note: ACH deposits are free; debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal deposits carry processing fees.
withdrawal note: Bitcoin withdrawals carry a network-based fee; fiat withdrawals by ACH are free, wires vary by bank.

Every Gemini cost, by rail and by country

What it costs to use Gemini

Gemini costs by action, with conditions where they apply.
What you do	What it costs
Buy bitcoin on the ActiveTrader order book	0.6% maker and 1.2% taker at the entry tier, falling with 30 day volumeAbove $10,000 of 30 day volume it drops to 0.4% and 0.8%, and above $1,000,000 to 0.05% and 0.1%. You pay the taker rate when your order fills against one already on the book, which is what a market order does.
Buy bitcoin on the default Gemini screen	No fixed rate is published; the fee is shown on the trade review screenGemini's fee page says the fee is calculated when you place the order and is subject to factors including payment method, order size, market conditions, jurisdiction and asset, and that you can view it on the trade review screen before confirming. ActiveTrader is the interface with a published schedule, so switch to it, or read the number on the review screen before you confirm.
Buy bitcoin with a debit card	3.49% of the total purchase amountGemini publishes this separately from its trading fee schedules. On a $500 buy that is $17.45.
Fund the account with PayPal	2.50% of the total deposit amount
Fund the account by bank transfer	Free by ACH and free by wire
Withdraw dollars to your bank	Free by ACH, $25 by USD wire
Withdraw bitcoin to your own wallet	A dynamic network fee, shown before you confirm; no fixed Gemini fee is publishedThe schedule says dynamic withdrawal fees cover network fees paid to miners, are determined by the then current network fee for the asset, are displayed prior to the initiation of your withdrawal, and change often.

Gemini's security and regulatory record

Everything on the record we could date and source, newest first, including the parts that count against it.

2026-04-21Enforcement
New York AG sues Gemini over unlicensed prediction markets
Attorney General Letitia James sued Gemini and Coinbase, alleging their prediction markets amount to illegal, unlicensed gambling in New York: no licence from the New York State Gaming Commission, participation by users aged 18 to 20 where state law requires 21, betting on games involving New York college teams, and none of the tax a licensed operator owes. She asked the court to order forfeiture of the illegal profits, restitution to harmed consumers, and fines equal to three times those profits. The case is open. The claim concerns prediction markets, not bitcoin trading or custody.
NY Attorney General press release
2026-02-05Licence
Gemini closes its UK, EU and Australia businesses
Gemini announced it would shut its United Kingdom, European Union and Australian operations and cut 25% of its workforce, to concentrate on the United States, prediction markets and its consumer products. Customer accounts in the affected regions were placed in withdrawal mode from 5 March 2026, with full account closures in April 2026, and Gemini directed customers to eToro to assist in transferring assets. This was a commercial retreat rather than a licence revocation, but it means buyers in those regions can no longer open a Gemini account.
Fortune via Yahoo Finance
2026-01-23Resolved
SEC drops its Gemini Earn lawsuit
The SEC sued Genesis and Gemini in January 2023, alleging Gemini Earn was an unregistered offer and sale of securities. The agency agreed to dismiss, filing a stipulation on Friday 23 January 2026 and stating that dismissal was appropriate because Earn investors got 100% of their crypto assets back through the Genesis bankruptcy. Gemini paid no penalty to the SEC.
Banking Dive
2025-01-13Enforcement
CFTC fines Gemini $5 million over statements about a bitcoin futures contract
Gemini was ordered to pay a $5 million civil monetary penalty over statements made to the CFTC between July and December 2017, while it was seeking to self certify a bitcoin futures contract. The CFTC said the statements were false or misleading on its prefunding requirement, capital costs, self trade prevention, fee rebates and trade volume, and that they were material to whether the contract would be readily susceptible to manipulation.
CFTC press release 9031-25
2024-06-14Enforcement
New York AG settlement returns $50 million and bans Gemini lending in the state
The Attorney General found that Genesis loans behind Earn were under secured and at one point highly concentrated with a single entity, Sam Bankman-Fried's Alameda, while Gemini marketed the programme to customers. Gemini returned approximately $50 million in digital assets to more than 230,000 investors, including at least 29,000 New Yorkers, and is banned from operating any crypto lending programme in New York. The settlement followed a separate $2 billion settlement with Genesis.
NY Attorney General press release
2024-02-28Enforcement
NYDFS fines Gemini $37 million over the Earn programme
A consent order found that Gemini failed to conduct sufficient and ongoing due diligence on Genesis Global Capital, an unregulated third party, and failed to maintain adequate reserves throughout the life of Earn. NYDFS also found that Gemini Liquidity, LLC, an unregulated affiliate, collected hundreds of millions of dollars in fees from Gemini customers that could otherwise have gone to Gemini, substantially weakening Gemini's financial condition. Gemini paid a $37 million penalty to the Department, contributed $40 million to the Genesis bankruptcy, and committed to returning at least $1.1 billion to Earn customers. NYDFS put the affected group at over 200,000 Earn customers, including almost 30,000 New Yorkers.
NYDFS press release
2022-12-16Breach
Third party vendor breach exposed 5.3 million customer email addresses
A data set posted to a public hacking forum in late 2022 contained email addresses and partial phone numbers for about 5.3 million Gemini accounts. The hacker claimed the data came from Gemini. That claim was disproven: the source was traced to Twilio, which processed the data of some Gemini customers through its Authy two factor service and was hit by a social engineering attack on employee credentials. The exposed fields were contact details only, not credentials or account access. Have I Been Pwned recorded the incident on 16 December 2022; it dates the breach itself only to December 2022.
Have I Been Pwned
2022-11-16Insolvency
Gemini Earn froze when lending partner Genesis halted withdrawals
Genesis Global Capital, the borrower behind the Gemini Earn yield programme, stopped redemptions on 16 November 2022 after the collapse of FTX, having defaulted on approximately $1 billion of loans, and filed for bankruptcy on 19 January 2023. About 232,000 Earn users had active loans outstanding at that point and were locked out for roughly 18 months. Gemini's exchange and custody accounts were not part of Earn and kept operating. Earn users received 97% of their assets back in kind on 29 May 2024 and the remaining 3% on 20 June 2024, which Gemini states is 100% of the assets owed, returned in kind.
Gemini Earn updates page
2021-01-19Audit
Deloitte completes SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 examinations
Gemini said Deloitte and Touche LLP tested the controls behind the exchange and Gemini Custody over a period covering 2020 rather than at a single point in time, covering financial reporting controls as well as security, availability and confidentiality. A Type 2 examination checks that controls actually operated over time, which is a stronger claim than a Type 1. Gemini said at the time it would repeat the examinations on a yearly basis. Note that this is a 2021 statement of intent: no later dated announcement was found, and the reports themselves are not published, so it should not be read as evidence of a current examination.
Gemini blog
2015-10-05Licence
NYDFS grants Gemini a limited purpose trust charter
The New York State Department of Financial Services granted Gemini Trust Company, LLC a charter under New York Banking Law to operate as a limited purpose trust company with fiduciary powers, and authorised it to begin operations immediately. NYDFS said the charter followed a review of the firm's anti money laundering protocols, capitalisation, consumer protections and cybersecurity standards. It was the second virtual currency trust charter NYDFS granted, after itBit in May 2015. That is a bank style charter rather than a money transmitter licence or a BitLicense, and it remains the basis of the platform's regulatory standing in the United States.
NYDFS press release

The Gemini record by kind, and compared with its alternatives

Where we recommend Gemini

Countries where Gemini ranks in our local guide, each with its rank, the payment methods it takes there and the legal position. Availability beyond these is possible but unverified by us.

United States

The one country with rank, rails and legal status

Gemini by state in the United States

51 state rows from our state guides. Each state opens the Gemini page for it: availability, the caveat where there is one, the source, and the rails it takes there. Every state compared.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use Gemini in New York?

Yes. Gemini operates through a New York trust company chartered by the NYDFS in 2015, so New York is its home turf rather than an excluded state. It serves all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Has Gemini ever been hacked?

The exchange itself has not suffered a major hack, and it completes SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 examinations. Its worst episode was the Earn lending program freezing in November 2022 when Genesis collapsed; users received their assets back in kind by mid-2024.

What happened to Gemini Earn?

Earn users were frozen out in November 2022 when the lending partner Genesis failed. Through May and June 2024 they received their digital assets back in kind, roughly 232% of the value at the freeze, and Gemini paid a $37 million NYDFS penalty plus a $40 million contribution. The SEC's related case was dismissed with prejudice in January 2026.

What is the cheapest way to buy bitcoin on Gemini?

Use ActiveTrader, the volume-tiered maker and taker interface. The instant-buy flow on web and mobile adds a convenience fee of roughly half a percent plus a flat transaction fee, which is the expensive path.