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Gemini Review 2023
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Sinead Burgess
The exchange we’re reviewing today is none other than the famous and celebrity-endorsed Gemini crypto exchange, and we think it’s a great choice even for the pickiest of crypto traders. Stick with us to the end as we’ll bring you a full review of the Gemini exchange, where we’ll cover its ease of use, supported fiat and cryptocurrencies, fees, customer support, mobile app, and more.
First, we’ll say that Gemini is an exchange that offers well over 50 different cryptocurrencies along with a select choice of cryptocurrency pairs. One of the more interesting facts about the platform is that it has never fallen prey to any hacks or other remote attacks like phishing and malware.
About the Trading Platform
Gemini (The Gemini Trust Company, LLC) is a cryptocurrency trading platform that opened its doors in 2015. Gemini is headquartered in New York City, New York, US. The platform provides crypto trading services to both beginners and experienced traders and offers different features for buying and selling crypto. The name Gemini might sound familiar to users because of the exchange’s owners, Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss, or as the media likes to address them – The Winklevoss twins.
The Gemini trading platform doesn’t have as much trading volume as competing exchanges such as Coinbase and Binance. Still, it offers more than 50 different cryptocurrencies for trading its users.
Aside from the generous offer of cryptocurrencies and crypto pairs, the platform offers its cryptocurrency token called the Gemini dollar (GUSD), educational tools for teaching beginners the fundamentals of crypto investing, and other unique products that mainly cater to experienced traders. Features like Gemini Pay, Gemini Earn, and the Gemini wallet are present to give users a more refined and robust trading experience than other platforms.
The platform is also regulated within all U.S. states by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS). U.S-regulated exchanges are some of the most trustworthy platforms as the US regulation laws are some of the strictest in the world.
All in all, Gemini offers some exciting features we can’t wait to examine a bit more. You can think of it as the Walmart of cryptocurrency exchanges, a one-stop shop for every user’s crypto needs. It’s got great deals for trading, and users can find everything they need to trade cryptocurrencies, including wallets, educational tools, and both a basic and advanced platform (Active Trader platform). These features come at the cost of slightly higher trading fees, but we think they’re worth it.
Ease of Use
Gemini is a robust trading platform that’s accessible for beginners and offers pros everything they need, with a slight emphasis on users who’ve been around the block and are well past the basics of crypto trading. It does that by offering two distinct platforms.
The Basic platform allows users to purchase crypto at prevailing market rates. In contrast, the Active Trader platform allows users to actively trade with crypto, i.e., to set their own orders and prices for purchasing and selling crypto. Gemini’s user interface is pretty clean and straightforward so that beginners can make the most of it. Experienced traders should head to Gemini’s advanced platform, Gemini Active Trader. Most of the features available there are geared towards experienced users.
Gemini Active Trader
The Gemini Active Trader platform is an advanced trading platform that caters to experienced users. The AT platform is free to use, and users can enjoy different perks that otherwise are not available on the main trading platform.
Some of the features included on AT include the execution of fast trades, different types of orders, order amounts, advanced charting, crypto pair auctions, and analytic services like real-time market analysis. The AT platform was initially optimized for desktop platforms. As time went on, the main goal was to optimize the platform to work on mobile devices. Currently, you can use it through the Gemini mobile app for remote trading, and it has all the features of its desktop counterpart.
The fee schedule for crypto orders on the AT platform is different from Gemini’s main platform, but we’ll delve a bit more into that in our section on fees.
Gemini Pay
The Gemini Pay platform allows users to purchase cryptocurrencies at more than 30,000 retail shops within the United States. What’s excellent about Gemini Pay is that there are no commission fees, and there are even cash-back features at some retailers.
Because cryptocurrencies are a volatile asset, the platform allows users to exchange their crypto for Gemini’s native crypto token, the Gemini dollar. The Gemini dollar is a stablecoin category token pegged to the US dollar at a one-to-one ratio. This is the recommended coin to use on Gemini Pay, and all of the retailers in contract with Gemini accept it as legitimate payment.
Cryptopedia for Beginners
New users can also benefit from Gemini’s student platform called Cryptopedia.
Cryptopedia is Gemini’s “school” for beginners. Its goal is to teach potential users the basics of cryptocurrency trading, as well as more advanced trading strategies, the basics of fee structures, the maker and taker fee model, different blockchains, NFTs, and more. The Cryptopedia library boasts a fine collection of crypto-related articles – at the time of writing, the Gemini Cryptopedia library contains more than 300 articles on more than 150 cryptocurrency topics.
Gemini Wallets
Gemini offers its users two different cryptocurrency wallets. The first wallet is a cold storage wallet called the Gemini Custody, while the second is a software hot wallet called Gemini Wallet.
The Gemini Custody wallet enables users to store their crypto in cold storage by removing their cryptocurrency assets from the platform’s regular storage wallets with a price of 0.4% annually. The hot Gemini Wallet is free to use and offers industry-standard security features like two-factor authentication and functions basically like any software wallet. It’s not as safe as the cold storage wallet, but it will get the job done, especially with lower amounts of crypto.
Account Funding
Account funding is done through a bank account, and unfortunately, neither credit cards nor debit cards can be used for funding. There is an option for a money wire or ACH transfer for users within the United States. There are daily funding limits of $500 and monthly funding limits of $15,000. Aside from funding, the daily withdrawal limit amounts to $100,000.
For fiat currencies, users can fund their account by linking their bank account. This feature is located through the “Funding Sources” tab in the dropdown menu and selecting “Automatically link bank”
If the automatic features are not available, users can manually input their banking credentials. To make a successful wire deposit into your account, you need to go through a verification process with the bank of your choice.
For crypto funding, users will have to deposit the crypto from their wallet to a unique Gemini-generated deposit address. Here’s a complete guide for account funding on Gemini.
Bitcoin and Other Supported Cryptocurrencies
Gemini might lack some of the popular cryptos and the blockchains they’re running on compared to larger and more widely used platforms. The cryptocurrencies available on Gemini are mostly the popular ones on the market. There are 50 different cryptocurrencies along with every ERC-20 token. Some of the digital assets that Gemini supports include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Zcash (ZEC), Dai (DAI), Chainlink (LINK), and their native crypto token Gemini dollar (GUSD).
Crypto assets like Ethereum Classic (ETC), Monero (MXR), and EOSiO (EOS) are not yet supported on Gemini, so you have to seek them elsewhere, on exchanges like Coinbase.
When it comes to fiat, Gemini supports seven fiat currencies, and those include The United States dollar (USD), Australian dollar (AUD), Canadian dollar (CAD), European Euro (EUR), Global Pound Sterling (GBP), Singapore dollar (SGP), and Hong Kong dollar (HKD).
Gemini Trading Fees and Limits
In plain words, the fees that users will have to pay on the Gemini platform mostly depend on the payment method they choose, whether they’re using the basic or active trading platform, and the cryptocurrency in question. There are transaction fees, convenience fees, as well as withdrawal fees. The fees are known to be on the pricier side – they’re competitive at best. However, we think Gemini more than makes up for them, as it offers insurance and a fully regulated platform that provides a wide range of services.
Let’s start with the Convenience fee. This fee costs around 0.5% of the Gemini asset market price for any trade. It can vary from market to market, but it mostly sticks around 0.5%.
For example, we’ll imagine that the price of Zorgbit (ZGT) is $30,000. With the convenience fee, ZGT would cost the trader $30,150.
Next, we have the transaction fee. This fee is paid along with the convenience fee and is based on the user’s trade amount and the crypto in question. However, for crypto conversion, there is a fixed 1,49% fee.
Deposit fees. There is no fee for depositing on Gemini. Users are free to move crypto from their wallets or from another exchange to trade on the Gemini platform.
Withdrawal fees. Gemini doesn’t charge you fees for withdrawing cryptocurrencies. Withdrawing fiat currencies like the US dollar, on the other hand, incurs a fee. There is no fee under ten withdrawals per month, but anything above that incurs a fee. Users can also withdraw up to seven fiat currencies besides the US dollar, including EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, HKD, and SGD. The terms for withdrawing remain the same as the US dollar.
Every cryptocurrency on Gemini incurs its fee. For the sake of clarity and because we want to avoid overwhelming you with a massive list of fee information, we invite you to check out the basic platform fee schedule and the Active Trader fee schedule.
Gemini Earn Program
The Gemini Earn program lets users lend their digital assets to various institutions that act as borrowers and earn different degrees of interest on their lent crypto. The maximum return interest that users can make is 7.4% APY (annual percentage yield). The exact rates are different for each cryptocurrency – you can read the complete list of Gemini earn’s fees and percentages if you want to learn more.
Is Gemini Safe to Use?
As we stated in the introduction, Gemini has never been hacked, and all of the assets stored within the platform are insured by the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation).
Gemini stores users’ assets in cold storage, as this method is considered the safest for storing crypto in the whole industry. A small portion of assets is kept in the platform’s hot wallet for any day-to-day withdrawals, but the wallet is insured against any kind of breach in security.
Other security measures and features include a two-factor authentication system (2FA), ID verification upon Gemini account creation, and basic credentials like email registration, mobile phone number, and residency address.
All in all, Gemini is a safe platform regulated in the United States and backed by the FCID.
Gemini Customer Support
You can reach Gemini’s customer care team via email at [email protected], via
their live chat channel you can find on the main website, and you can also browse through their FAQ page. However, note that you initiate the live chat by sending a message to a bot and waiting for a response. The chatbot then redirects users with more significant issues than it can handle. There is no direct phone support available.
Like many crypto platforms, customer service is not one of Gemini’s strongest suits, but we would describe it as adequate.
A Few Words Before You Go...
Gemini’s significant advantage over other crypto platforms is that it’s regulated and backed by the FDIC. Another great benefit of the platform is that they store most user assets in offline cold storage. The portion that isn’t stored offline is also insured so that users can feel at ease with the safety of their assets.
But, Gemini does have a couple of drawbacks. These include the layered fee system, in which every crypto brings its own fee, and the fact that Gemini is expensive when you compare it to other platforms of similar reputation, even more so than Coinbase. But the exchange does make up for it by providing a state-of-the-art crypto trading environment, wallets, educational tools, and adequate support.
When all’s done and said, we can say that Gemini is a worthwhile platform that will make both beginners and seasoned investors happy.
frequently asked questions
Yes, Gemini has a feature-packed mobile app, primarily focused on the Gemini Active Trader platform, as the app allows you to access every feature from the desktop platform. You can download the Gemini app for both Android and iOS devices from their respective app stores.
Indeed it does. Gemini offers two wallets for their platform – the former is a hardware wallet called the Gemini Custody wallet, and the latter is a hot wallet called the Gemini wallet. Both wallets are free to use, but the hardware wallet incurs an annual fee of 0.4% for safely storing and insuring crypto, although users can download it for free.
Gemini is available in more than 70 countries, including the whole of the United States. Gemini is also regulated, licensed, and audited in Australia and accepts Australian dollars as deposits. You can see Gemini’s areas of availability to check whether the platform is available in your area.