Gemini to raise $400 million at a $7.1 billion valuation to compete with Meta

Gemini Space Station, LLC, the parent company of the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, is close to closing its first funding round led by Morgan Creek Digital. Investors will invest $400 million in the company, valuing it at $7.1 billion, Forbes reports.

The round includes Marcy Venture Partners, Jay-Z’s venture firm; WndrCo, former Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, VanEck, Australia’s Commonwealth Bank, 10T Holdings of Dan Tapiero, and other investors.

Under the terms of the deal, Morgan Creek Digital’s general partner Sachin Jaitly will join Gemini’s board of directors. The board also includes Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, with two more experts to join within the next two months.

The Winklevoss twins are expected to retain a 75% stake in the company. Following the funding round their combined wealth will reach $10.5 billion.

Over the past 12 months the company’s revenue has grown by 600% — by the end of 2021 Gemini aims to be profitable. The bulk of the firm’s income comes from its trading platforms Gemini Exchange and Active Trader.

The firm offers custody services under Gemini Custody and is the issuer of the Gemini Dollar (GUSD) stablecoin. The ecosystem also includes:

• Gemini Earn, allowing clients to earn interest on cryptocurrency deposits;
• Gemini Clearing — a clearing solution for OTC trades;
• Gemini Pay — a payments system launched in collaboration with Flexa, enabling the use of cryptocurrencies in retail stores;
• Nifty Gateway — a marketplace for trading NFT.

According to Cameron Winklevoss, the company employs 600 people across two offices (London and Singapore) and remote staff. By the end of the year Gemini will grow to 1,000 employees.

The Winklevoss brothers told Forbes that they aim to build their own metaverse capable of competing with projects from giants such as Meta (formerly Facebook). In their view, a battle between decentralized spaces and closed ecosystems (walled gardens) will soon unfold.

“Right now in technology there are two parallel paths. There is the centralized path chosen by Facebook and Fortnite, which is one step away from becoming a metaverse, and that is perfectly normal. But there is another path—the decentralized metaverse—and that is the metaverse in which, in our view, there is choice, independence and great opportunities, as well as technology that protects the rights and dignity of people,” said Cameron.

To pursue their objective, the twins actively invest in the space personally (via the Winklevoss Capital family office) and through the recently launched Gemini Frontier Fund. For example, in the latter’s portfolio are The Sandbox, a blockchain gaming platform, and Somnium Space.

According to Tyler Winklevoss, the company plans to open offices in several virtual worlds. He also stressed that existing social networks have many problems, but blockchain could fix them.

“It’s very easy to identify the problems of existing networks and social spaces. But there haven’t been many solutions. We believe the crypto industry offers a possible path, so we will continue evaluating investments through Gemini Frontier, and perhaps even create our own project,” Tyler said.

In July, Cameron Winklevoss said that Gemini will win in the competition the largest by trading volume platform Binance.

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