Gemini Expands in Singapore as It Looks to Asia for Crypto’s ‘Next Wave’

Gemini says the future of cryptocurrency lies in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

The crypto exchange announced Monday (June 19) it plans to increase its headcount in Singapore to more than 100 workers, while also establishing an engineering base in India.

“Our Singapore office will serve as a hub for our larger APAC operations,” the company — run by twin billionaires Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss — wrote in a blog entry. “We believe that APAC will be a great driver of the next wave of growth for crypto and Gemini.”

The blog entry notes that Gemini has offered support for the Singapore dollar since 2020, as well as the dollars of Hong Kong and Australia.

Gemini had said in April it was planning to grow in Asia and set up a crypto derivatives operation outside the U.S.

As PYMNTS wrote at the time, the company was joining other crypto firms like Coinbase in eyeing operations overseas amid a crackdown on their industry by U.S. regulators.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong had warned in April that crypto firms are going to start building in “offshore havens” if the U.S. and the United Kingdom don’t come up with clear regulations, and initiated his company could be one of them.

“I think the U.S. has the potential to be an important market for crypto, but right now we are not seeing that regulatory clarity that we need,” Armstrong said. “I think in a number of years if we don’t see that regulatory clarity emerge in the U.S. we may have to consider investing more elsewhere in the world.”

Since then, the situation has escalated, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) suing Coinbase and fellow crypto platform Binance earlier this month. The SEC’s suit accuses Coinbase of operating as an unregistered exchange, brokerage and clearing house.

“The SEC’s central legal claim is that Coinbase has pocketed billions of dollars by collecting transaction fees from investors without the legally required disclosures and protections of securities registration — exposing its customers to risk,” PYMNTS wrote recently.

Coinbase, meanwhile, has reiterated its argument that the commission has failed to provide it with a clear way to register as a compliant trading platform.

“From the point of view of Coinbase, the SEC suit has a fatal flaw — none of the digital assets under discussion represent investment contracts, even if they may be the objects of those contracts,” PYMNTS wrote.