Crypto exchange Gemini raises $400 million in funding, hitting a $7.1 billion valuation

One of the world’s leading crypto exchanges, Gemini, has secured $400 million in a recent investment round led by Morgan Creek Capital. The funding round values the company at $7.1 billion. Gemini also plans to invest heavily in alternative metaverse proposals.

Gemini, the cryptocurrency platform and exchange founded by twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has announced $400 million in funding in a round led by Morgan Creek Digital. Jay Z’s Marcy Venture Partners, 10T, Newflow Partners, ParaFi, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia also contributed. The growth equity round rockets the value of Gemini to $7.1 billion.

“We are leading the first outside investment in Gemini because of our shared conviction in crypto and belief in the company that Cameron and Tyler are building,” said Sachin Jaitly, General Partner of Morgan Creek Digital. “Their vision for the role of crypto in redesigning money, the financial system, art, the Internet, and their track record of incubating and scaling innovative technologies, gives us confidence in Gemini’s ability to continue to be an industry leader.”

Gemini has other tricks up its sleeve, including a bid to help create a decentralized version of the metaverse, a version of the internet that blends virtual and augmented realities.

That will pit them against their archrival, Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is hard at work on a for-profit version of the metaverse, even though the company’s stablecoin ambitions have thus far foundered. This epic competition between the twins and Zuckerberg is a tortoise vs. hare scenario, and now it’s starting to look like Gemini is starting to catch up.

“There’re these two parallel paths, in terms of technology right now,” says Cameron Winklevoss, Co-Founder and President of Gemini, in an interview with Forbes. “There’s a centralized path, like Facebook or Fortnite, that is one step away from being a metaverse, and that’s totally fine. But there is another path, which is the decentralized metaverse, and that’s the metaverse where we believe there’s a greater choice, independence, and opportunity, and there is a technology that protects the rights and dignity of individuals.”

Launched in 2015 by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Gemini has seen a significant jump in trading volumes due to the popularity of digital assets this year. In 2021, Gemini announced the acquisition of Blockrize to help launch the Gemini Credit Card. Additionally, the exchange acquired ShardX. In addition to the latest acquisitions, the company introduced Gemini Earn that allows users to lend their crypto assets.

In 2021, Gemini expanded its global presence substantially. The exchange entered the UK as one of the few registered digital asset firms. Moreover, the company filed its license with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to accelerate its expansion plans in the Asia Pacific region. “In 2021, we diversified our revenue stream, expanded to new territories, acquired pioneering companies, and invested in industry-redefining innovations through the Gemini Frontier Fund. We also supported Bitcoin core development through the Gemini Opportunity Fund,” said Cameron Winklevoss. “We are incredibly excited to continue to build on the frontier of crypto and give individuals around the world greater choice, independence and opportunity through crypto.”