U.S. based Gemini Trust Company, the company behind crypto exchange platform Gemini, has launched the Gemini Mobile App, which is now available on Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store. The platform provides ease of access to traders to buy and sell cryptocurrencies and a host of other functions which could only be performed through the browser-based platform alone.
The free app will allow traders to buy and sell the digital assets currently available on the Gemini trading platform: Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), ZCash (ZEC) and Litecoin (LTC). Gemini, which is owned by the Winklevoss Twins, revealed some of the features that are integrated into the app. This includes functionality that helps crypto traders to trade, send and receive cryptocurrencies, set recurring buy orders, view portfolio values and market values, and if they want, buy a basket of digital assets with one order.
CryptoVerse Fund
However, one of its standout features will be the Cryptoverse Fund, a basket of the five currencies that are currently offered by the exchange weighed by market cap. Users of the platform will be able to use the “buy the Cryptoverse” feature to purchase all five currencies with a single order. As of this writing, the price of BTC will conform as much as 80% of the valuation of the investment vehicle.
Security
For most mobile applications, security is often an issue. Would the cryptocurrencies be safer if the traders had it on their phone as against on the exchange? Gemini says it has all the bases covered. The digital asset company is touting the multiple security layers of the app, which include two-factor authentication from the security platform Authy, as well as a requirement that the customers should have an additional PIN.
More broadly, Gemini is hoping that the app will be consistent with its regulator-friendly approach to compliance and security, particularly in this era where the SEC has begun to crack down on blockchain firms that discard regulations.
Cameron Winklevoss, Gemini president, noted in a blog post:
“We’ve spent the last three years building the world’s most trusted cryptocurrency platform, and today we are excited to extend it into the hands of our customers. Cryptocurrency never sleeps, so it’s important for us to make it easy for our customers to engage with it wherever they are and whenever they want.”
The timing of this app’s launch has a lot of people asking questions, considering the fact the crypto market has been in the midst of a very vicious downturn in recent months. Who expands when trading volumes keep falling, and prices of cryptocurrencies are at an all-time low?
In an interview, Winklevoss revealed that the app had been top of Gemini’s priority list of requests from their customers, who have all grown to rely on the company’s mobile website platform.
Optimistic Despite Opposition
The Winklevoss twins have been busy in 2018. Rolling out new products on all fronts as they fight back a stiff regulatory environment. Back in July 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission rejected a second attempt by the twins to list shares of what would have been the very first Bitcoin ETF.
A proposal from BATS BZX Exchange was sent to the SEC as far back as 2016, as the exchange looked to list and trade the commodity-based shares of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust. The proposal was, however, voted down 3-1 by the commission in March 2017.
Following this disapproval, the group filed a petition with the hope that the Commission would review the disapproval, but the SEC published a release on the 26th of July, rejecting the appeal.
Among various other concerns, the SEC stated that it wasn’t in support of the Winklevoss’ argument that Bitcoin markets (with the inclusion of the Gemini Exchange) are “uniquely resistant to any form of manipulation.”
The twins went on to form a regulatory supergroup after the SEC disapproved their Bitcoin ETF. Known as the Virtual Commodity Association, the group looked to become the central authority for dealing with the SEC on issues regarding compliance and regulation. The group started with four members-Bittrex, bitFlyer USA, Bitstamp and the Gemini Trust Company.
Gemini also recently released the Gemini Dollar, a stablecoin whose value is Dollar-pegged. According to Cameron, the new stablecoin “is effectively a way to link the world to the world of digital assets and to allow fiat currency to move on a blockchain the same way digital assets move.”
