Gemini Picks Up Momentum Amid Recent Price Surge
Gemini, the first U.S. based, fully regulated bitcoin exchange has already become one of the top 10 bitcoin exchanges in the world amid the recent surge in the price of bitcoin.
Founded by prominent Internet entrepreneurs, the Winklevoss twins, and launched on the 8th of October, the long-awaited New York-based bitcoin exchange struggled to attract high profile traders for the first few weeks after its launch. Unlike most of the established bitcoin exchanges in the country, the Winklevosses chose to target a more institutional clientele by charging both buyers and sellers on each trade.
Existing bitcoin exchanges and financial experts raised several questions around their approach and pricing system, and speculated that it would drive away retail traders.
Despite criticism from the bitcoin community, dollar-to-bitcoin trades on the Gemini exchange have totalled 14,477 in the past 30 days, according to bitcoinity.org. In less than one month since its debut, Gemini has already secured the top 10 spot on various exchanges’ order books.
While Gemini’s daily total is still significantly smaller other prominent bitcoin exchanges such as Bitfinex’ 24-hour volume, which currently stands at around US$11 million, it has shown a rapid growth in trading volume over the past week, due to the recent surge of the price of bitcoin.
Over the past 7 days, Gemini has processed over 12,000 BTC, overtaking Canada’s largest bitcoin exchange Quadriga CX, Cavirtex and other established bitcoin exchanges including Coinfloor, CEX.io and Coinsetter.
Since mid-October, the average daily trading volume of Gemini has also increased by around 30%.
At its peak, the bitcoin price briefly surpassed the US$500 mark on November 5, leading to the increase of trading volume of most bitcoin exchanges, including the world’s largest bitcoin exchange OKCoin, which saw nearly a 98% increase in daily trading volume during the price spike.
However, it is unsure if the Gemini exchange will be able to sustain its volume growth throughout the year, especially now that the bitcoin price and volume has already depreciated by 25%.
