Winklevoss brothers open bitcoin exchange in UK

Gemini Trust Co, the U.S.-based bitcoin exchange founded by investors Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, opened for trading in Britain on Tuesday, the second stop in an overseas expansion project.

In an interview last Thursday, Gemini CEO Tyler Winklevoss said that currently, British citizens can only trade bitcoin and ether on exchanges.

Ether (public chain) is the token or digital asset of the Ethereum platform.

Winklevoss said trading of bitcoin and ether against dollars and pounds would begin within weeks, and that the company’s service would not require approval from British regulators to be used.

Winklevoss said:

“The FCA has made it clear that they are not going to regulate digital assets at this time. Secondly, we have to submit something and we will be the first company to submit the paperwork.”

The Winklevoss brothers became bitcoin entrepreneurs after receiving US$65 million (A$87 million) from the Facebook settlement.

Two weeks ago, Gemini began its overseas expansion plans by opening trading in Canada, which also does not require permission from regulators.

Cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular as investors consider them as a separate asset class.

Major financial giants such as Goldman Sachs and global technology companies such as IBM are trying to unlock potential use cases for blockchain, the underlying technology for these assets.

Blockchain is a database that allows a network of computers to verify, clear, settle, track and record transactions and asset ownership.

Winklevoss said Gemini’s trading volume, or the notional value of bitcoin and ether traded on the platform, was about $40 million as of May.

By the end of June, he saw volume rise to between $50 million and $60 million.

According to digital currency data website coinmarketcap.com, Bitcoin was trading at $677.18 on the Bitstamp platform on Tuesday, with a total market value of $10.6 billion.

Ethereum is the second largest digital currency after Bitcoin, with a last change price of $12.27 and a total market value of nearly $1 billion.