Winklevoss’ Gemini pushes presence in Asia, supports Singapore dollar

Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange founded by the Winklevoss brothers, continues to strengthen its global presence by tapping into the Singaporean market.

On Monday, Gemini announced a roll-out of several new features for its platform in Singapore, including support for the Singapore dollar on mobile and desktop. According to the announcement, Gemini customers in Singapore can now use a debit card to buy crypto with Singapore dollars as well as use electronic funds transfer service FAST to make deposits on Gemini.

In a move to support the development of local decentralized finance, Gemini now also allows Singaporeans to trade major DeFi tokens like Yearn.finance's YFI, Uniswap's UNI and Filecoin (FIL). Gemini’s platform in Singapore supports a total of 20 tokens including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and others.

Gemini has also integrated with local data services like Singapore Personal Access and MyInfo to provide a more localized experience for its customers in Singapore.

The company has also established a local office and completed a series of senior hires, including ex-Leonteq Asia executive Jeremy Ng as Gemini’s head of Asia, former Asia-Pacific financial crimes legal counsel Andy Meehan as chief compliance officer. Eugene Ng, a former derivatives sales executive at Deutsche Bank, joined Gemini’s Singapore office as head of business development.

Gemini CEO Tyler Winklevoss said that Singapore is a financial epicenter and the “heart of Asia and is a fast-growing market for cryptocurrency.” 

As reported by Cointelegraph, Singapore has emerged as a major global hub for cryptocurrency exchanges, firms and blockchain enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region. The country’s regulators are known for their crypto-friendly stance, including zero capital gains tax on crypto income. In late 2020, Singapore’s largest bank, DBS, officially announced the development of a new crypto exchange division.