Gemini Crypto Exchange Gets Regulatory Approval for Litecoin Trading

Winklevoss twins owned US-based cryptocurrency exchange Gemini has received regulatory clearance to provide Litecoin (LTC) custody and list for trading. The news was revealed through an official Medium blog post.

Eric Winer, Gemini’s vice president of engineering, has informed clients that they will be able to deposit Litecoin into their crypto exchange accounts from 9:30 am EDT Saturday, October 13 onwards. Furthermore, Litecoin trading facility will open on Tuesday, October 16th at 9:30 am EDT.

Notably, the coin is the fourth crypto supported by the platform, along with Bitcoin (BTC), Zcash (ZEC), and Ethereum (ETH). The announcement has also revealed that Litecoin will be paired with all three cryptos, as well as against the US dollar.

Winer’s post highlights Gemini’s comprehensive “banking compliance and fiduciary obligations” under supervision from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). It remarks that Litecoin trading assistance comes as the outcome of close collaboration with the watchdog, and that the exchange proceeds to grow with a “security-first” attitude.

Finally, the post discloses that the exchange was planning to list Bitcoin Cash (BCH) along with Litecoin. However, the high levels of “uncertainty” within the Bitcoin Cash community regarding “one or more possible hard forks” intended for mid-November, Gemini has elected to postpone its support of the asset:

“Some of [the] forks [currently under discussion] lack the replay protection feature that would be required for Gemini to safely support Bitcoin Cash. Because of this situation, we are delaying our launch of Bitcoin Cash deposits, withdrawals, and trading until late November, after the forks have passed and we can evaluate the health of the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem.”

In the first week of this month, Gemini revealed that it had obtained insurance coverage for digital assets in custody from lending services firm Aon, which will integrate its already available Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) coverage for US dollar deposits. Recently, the Winklevoss twins have also obtained the approval from the NYDFS to launch their own stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, the Gemini dollar, the same day when US Trust company Paxos unveiled its own NYDFS-approved stablecoin.

Following the above event, the twin brothers reportedly started hiring strategists to oversee Gemini’s potential expansion to the UK market. At the time of writing this article, Gemini was the world’s 38th largest crypto exchange by CoinMarketCap, with over $34 million in daily traded volumes.