DeFi Gemini: New York Crypto Exchange Powerhouse Lists Chainlink & Dai
Chainlink, a decentralized oracle network, and the Dai, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, are two of the most popular enterprises in Ethereum’s rising decentralized finance sector. Both projects’ tokens will soon trade on New York State’s most popular crypto exchange, Gemini, too.
The news of Gemini’s forthcoming LINK and DAI listings comes after the exchange announced earlier this week it would be listing Brave’s Basic Attention Token (BAT) later this month, specifically on April 24th.
In the wake of the BAT announcement, Gemini teased it would be imminently adding support for three further cryptocurrency projects. On Thursday, April 9th, the exchange confirmed those projects were Chainlink, the Dai, and the privacy-minded Orchid (OXT) token and that they, like BAT, would also be available for trading on April 24th.
From that point forward, the newly-listed tokens will enjoy trading pairs against bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum’s ether (ETH), and USD and join the likes of Gemini’s other supported cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), and Zcash (ZEC).
The DeFi Factor
Under the supervision of New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), New York’s nook of the cryptoeconomy is renowned as the most tightly regulated in all of America.
To say the least, then, it’s not easy to be a crypto business in the state, or rather such businesses there must demonstrably meet very high operating standards.
Gemini’s entire brand is built around not only meeting but also surpassing high standards, so it’s notable the exchange is adding support for three new DeFi projects in BAT, DAI, and LINK. Why?
It’s not that DeFi in its totality is incompatible with the mainstream, because the arena absolutely is. Instead, it’s that DeFi in some areas is metaphorically like a wild stallion: it can be difficult, and in some ways impossible, to fully to tame.
For example, anyone, anywhere, anytime can use the Dai stablecoin without permission. That dynamic will likely lead to far more societal good than bad over the long run, but even the mere fact that such a DeFi project can be so open often makes mainstream entities skiddish to participate in and around DeFi at all — at least while things remain relatively early still.
This is all to say that in LINK and DAI, Gemini has concluded it has seen enough reasons to move beyond any such DeFi skiddishness. In extension, this means the exchange’s leadership feels confident the listings are legally defensible. On Thursday, Gemini confirmed they collaborated with the NYDFS on greenlighting the new tokens:
“These assets expand the range of our platform and further our mission to empower the individual through crypto. We have worked closely with the New York State Department of Financial Services to obtain approval to offer trading and custody services for these new assets and we look forward to continuing to bring mission-oriented projects to you in the future.”
Gemini Rising
This week, Canadian investment fund manager 3iQ saw its bitcoin-based fund, The Bitcoin Fund, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. It was a first-of-a-kind listing for the mainstream exchange.
Notably, the custodian of the fund’s underlying bitcoin reserves is none other than Gemini. On the news, the exchange’s co-founder and chief executive officer Tyler Winklevoss said:
“This is the first public bitcoin fund listed on a major global stock exchange. Proud that [Gemini] was selected as the custodian for this fund.”
Moreover, last month Nifty Gateway, a market for rare digital collectibles built atop Ethereum, launched its “2.0” platform. The marketplace, which has already been off to a strong start since going live, was acquired by Gemini last year in the exchange brand’s first ever acquisition.
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OhNoCryptocurrency via https://www.ohnocrypto.com/ @William M. Peaster, @Khareem Sudlow
