The Winklevoss twins’ Gemini platform is being added as a constituent exchange to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group) and Crypto Facilities’ (CF) Bitcoin and Ether-Dollar Reference Rate and Real-Time Index. As revealed in an official tweet from CME Group on Aug. 8, Gemini will be included in four major crypto pricing indices as of Aug. 30. CME Group Bitcoin, Ether Indices As reported, CME Group launched its first two crypto pricing products — the standardized reference rate “CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate” and the spot index “CME CF Bitcoin Real-Time Index” — back in November 2016. Both were heralded …

Brazilian cryptocurrency exchanges are rolling out support for a stablecoin, according to a report by Cointelegraph Brasil on June 26. Brazilian platforms including PagCripto, Nox Trading, 3xBit, and Bitcambio, are reportedly slated to be the next adopters to issue this new stablecoin — pegged one-to-one with the Brazilian real — Real-T (REALT). As explained in its whitepaper, the “Real-T Token” is an Ethereum-based ERC-20 stablecoin that is “strictly pegged” to BRL. The paper claims that the company behind the token, Real-T Tecnologia S.A., will publicly share its bank statement to provide evidence for full backing of Real-T in fiat money. …

Winklevoss brothers-led Gemini crypto exchange is launching a new office in Chicago, the firm officially announced on June 27. Headquartered in New York, Gemini adds its new Chicago office to their existing office in Portland, Oregon, Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss wrote in a Medium post on Thursday. According to the statement, Gemini’s Chicago office will act as an engineering hub, and reflects the company’s goal of providing a “safe and reliable institutional-grade infrastructure” for trading and storing crypto. In the post, Tyler emphasized the city’s role in the global financial system, referring to Chicago as the “birthplace of commodities markets.” …

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, bitcoin (BTC) bulls and founders of the Gemini crypto exchange, have seen their fortune more than double to hit a combined $1.45 billion following the fresh crypto market surge. Bloomberg reported the news on June 27. As early investors in bitcoin, the twins' wealth now stands at its highest since March 2018 and has soared 120% from $654 million as of January this year, Bloomberg claims. The current bitcoin bull-run has restored the twins to ‘bitcoin billionaires’ once again. As Bitcoin’s price ascent continues apace — surpassing the $13,000 price mark in a matter of hours …

Social media giant Facebook has reportedly held talks with major United States-based crypto exchanges about the issuance of its own crypto, the Financial Times (FT) reports on May 24. Citing two people familiar with Facebook’s “Globalcoin” project, the FT wrote that Facebook has discussed the initiative with major crypto exchange and wallet Coinbase. The article also notes that Facebook reportedly spoke with the Gemini exchange, which was founded by the Winklevoss twins, the well-known rivals of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. According to the anonymous sources, Facebook has been conducting negotiations with major crypto-related firms in order to ensure that its …

Cryptocurrency asset management company BlockFi announced a change to its interest rates in a monthly update on May 21. Accounts with bitcoin (BTC) balances over 25 BTC will receive a .15% increase in interest rate, and those with ether (ETH) balances between 25 and 75 ETH will decrease from 6.2% to 3.25%. According to BlockFi, the lending environment for bitcoin has flourished while for ether it has floundered. Ether in particular is being offered at a 0.01% borrowing rate on major crypto exchange Poloniex and crypto lending firm Compound, and comprises only 3% of crypto lending giant Genesis Capital’s portfolio …

While it’s possible to buy top cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) in the over-the-counter (OTC) market, most people will need an exchange in order to buy other altcoins. Exchanges are simply an important component of the system that makes the crypto market tick. Regulators around the world have identified this, which is why regulatory moves have primarily targeted exchanges. Regulators want to be sure that exchanges employ the best security practices as well as measures — Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT), for instance — that discourage illicit transactions and …

Payments startup Flexa unveiled an app where consumers can spend cryptocurrencies at major American retailers. The app was unveiled during the first day of the Consensus conference in New York City on May 13. Tyler Spalding, the company’s co-founder, announced to attendees that Spedn is already live — and an accompanying news release confirmed that Barnes & Noble, Bed Bath & Beyond, GameStop, Lowe’s, Nordstrom, Office Depot and Whole Foods Market are among the stores now accepting payments via the Flexa network. Spalding stated that Spedn’s goal is to make cryptocurrencies spendable everywhere while ensuring merchants receive payments exactly like …

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have reached an agreement with bitcoin (BTC) entrepreneur Charlie Shrem to end a lawsuit the twins filed against Shrem last year. The news was revealed in court documents filed on April 16. The twins, who founded crypto exchange Gemini, had accused Shrem of stealing 5,000 bitcoin (worth about $26.1 million at press time) and using the crypto to buy Maseratis, powerboats and other luxury goods. He denied the allegations, which dated back to 2012. Attorneys for both parties have signed the document filed with a federal court in New York, which says the entire civil action …

Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by the Winklevoss twins, has updated its wallet infrastructure to include support for Segregated Witness (SegWit) bitcoin (BTC) addresses. The news was revealed in a Gemini blog post on April 15. SegWit is a scalability solution for the bitcoin network, first activated in late 2017. As well as increasing block size, Segwit moves the “witness” signature data to a separate location. It thus solves what is known as transaction malleability, which is conducive to second-layer solutions like Lightning Network (LN). Claiming that Gemini is the first major crypto exchange to launch full — rather than …

Cryptocurrency analytics firm Messari has added a new index for 10 cryptocurrency exchanges, the company announced in a blog post on March 26. Messari launched a new product dubbed “Real 10 Volumes” on its OnChainFX dashboard to limit its default volume calculations to the chosen exchanges. The “Real 10” trading platforms include Binance, Bitfinex, Bitflyer, Bitstamp, Bittrex, Coinbase Pro, Gemini, itBit, Kraken, and Poloniex. In the post, Messari said that the aforementioned exchanges reported “significant and legitimate trading volumes via their APIs [application programming interface].” The company further revealed that in the coming months it will add other exchanges, adding …

Sterling Witzke has been working at Winklevoss Capital — a venture capital firm set up by the famous Winklevoss twins — for five years now. As a professional investor, she is very interested in financing early stage crypto and blockchain projects. She believes that stablecoins are perfectly designed for the needs of internet payments and will steadily gain popularity as the industry evolves. We talked to Sterling Witzke about the future of fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, the necessity of proper legal frameworks and the future of the maturing crypto industry. Clarity is always good for an ecosystem Ana Berman: How do you …