Gemini is a crypto exchange that has been around for a fair amount of time, and it has built a fair track record for its reliability and quality of service.
However, its most notable differences from other platforms stem from the private owners’ determination to constantly innovate what a crypto platform is and how they put security at the highest level.
We’ll dive into the details of that tidbit in a while, but you should know right off the bat that Gemini frequently improves its service while maintaining solid performance.
Here’s what we’ll cover in this Gemini review:
Summary of Gemini Review
| Supported Crypto Assets | 50+ crypto assets |
| Account Minimum | No Account Minimum |
| Minimum Trade | Smallest amount of each crypto that can be traded |
| Commission and Fees | Fixed fee for trades under $200 or 1.49% for trades over $200, 3.49% debit or credit card purchase |
| Mobile App | Yes (iOS, Android) |
| Available Account Types | Taxable |
Similar Crypto Apps
Gemini Ese of Use and Design
Gemini provides an overall user-friendly design across all three of its platforms, but it’s important to note that each platform is intended for a different audience.
The main platform, or the one you’ll most likely come across first, is extremely user-friendly and geared towards beginners.
Its options are fairly limited, but it’s so neatly organized and streamlined that someone who hasn’t even logged onto a crypto exchange before can easily figure it out within a few minutes.
The more advanced platform, Gemini Active Traders, is a bit more complicated due to its large number of features.
However, even the Active Traders portion of Gemini is more well-designed than other highly advanced crypto exchanges, and it’s easy for veteran investors to navigate. We do recommend sticking to the basic platform until you get the hang of it, though.
Finally, the peer-to-peer portal shares the same straightforward design elements as the basic platform.
This allows users of all skill levels to trade crypto among themselves without digging through a lot of menus or complicated options panels.
Cryptocurrencies Available on Gemini
Gemini supports a large selection of coins and tokens, and it even has a stable coin variant tied to the U.S. Dollar.
However, you’re unlikely to buy and sell Gemini coins. It’s used as a utility for storing wealth or facilitating complicated trades.
Here are the third-party coins the platform supports:
- Bitcoin
- Ether
- Litecoin
- Bitcoin Cash
- Zcash
- Filecoin
- Tezos
- Dogecoin
- OX
- 1Inch
- Aave
- Alchemix
- AMP
- Ankr Network
- Bancor Network
- BarnBridge
- Basic Attention
- Balancer
- Chainlink
- Compound
- Cryptex
- Curve
- Dai
- Decentraland
- Enjin
- Fantom
- The Graph
- Injective Protocol
- Kyber Network
- Livepeer
- Loopring
- Maker
- Mirror Protocol
- Orchid
- Pax Gold
- Polygon
- Ren
- The Sandbox
- Skale
- Somnium Space
- Storj
- Sushiswap
- Synthetix
- Uma
- Uniswap
- Yearn.finance
Of those forty coins, 19 are available as peer-to-peer trading pairs, and the company hopes to continuously increase that amount until all coins are supported as pairs. The list is also frequently updated to include new coin support.
Gemini Supported Countries
Gemini boasts the rare benefit of being open to users in all 50 United States of America, as well as all of the country’s territories.
This is a welcomed change since most other platforms have either temporarily or permanently removed American users from their services since legal issues sprung up across the industry in 2020.
However, Gemini isn’t supported everywhere. Outside of the UK, Canada, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and their respective territories, it is banned or simply unavailable in most other places.
That still equates to 60 different regions and countries that can use the platform with ease, though.
For the rest of the world, this comes at a pretty high cost. Gemini offers a great selection of coins, numerous enticing features that platforms with more widespread availability simply don’t offer, and of course, it’s one of the safest platforms around.
This leaves a void that is difficult for international crypto investors to fill, but Gemini has expressed interest in bypassing these hurdles to meet the needs of a far broader audience.
It’s important to note that, outside of the US, Gemini’s availability might fluctuate over the coming years.
Many of the countries currently supporting Gemini are waging their own battles to regulate and control the crypto market.
So, the dice may fall any which way, and there’s no telling what countries will be supported in the long term.
How to Open a Gemini Account
Gemini has focused its account setup process to provide the best experience possible. Unlike other platforms, you don’t have to wait days or even weeks before you start investing.
Within about the same amount of time, as it takes to make an Amazon account, you can get started on Gemini.
However, there is one special step that makes your long-term experience much more enjoyable (and profitable) that we’ll note at the end.
1) Get Started
Click the “Get Started” button under “Personal Account”, and you’ll be faced with a series of pop-up windows.
All these require are your country, state, name, and other basic bits of info you have to provide for almost any account you make.
2) Take a Quiz
After you’ve entered your basic info, Gemini requires you to take a quick, 2-minute quiz to meet its security requirements.
3) Set up 2-Step Authentification
To do this, you’ll have to set up phone and email verification in case your account ever gets hacked, or you lose access to it.
4) Set up Payment
The payment step is probably the longest. It requires your Social Security Number, a compatible bank account, and a short period for a test transaction to be processed. This should only take 15 minutes or less, though.
5) Start Investing
Once you have all of the above steps finished, you’re ready to go. Simply click or tap on the exchange, use your verified payment method to buy crypto, and wait for the right time to sell it.
Optional:
Most crypto exchanges now require you to verify your identity via an ID, passport, or a photograph of some other government-issued document depending on the site’s TOS.
This usually has to be done before you can make any purchases, and it can take anywhere from a couple of hours to two weeks.
Gemini doesn’t make you do this to get started, though. Instead, they incentive identity verification by limiting the site’s features and your wallet limits until you do so.
This allows you to make small investments as soon as you have a bank account linked to your wallet.
But it helps prevent the cyber crimes and money laundering issues that platforms without identity verification requirements are plagued with.
To do it, simply follow the instructions in the popup box and wait a brief period for a confirmation message.
Gemini Features
Gemini has set itself apart from its top competitors with its constant drive to push innovation.
Yes, it offers charts, tracking features, and other mainstays of the industry, but it also has a few unique or rare features in the industry.
An Upcoming Credit Card
One of the most exciting features Gemini wants to bring to its platform is the Gemini Card.
Once it’s fully fleshed out and released to the Gemini user base, it’s expected to work just like a traditional credit card.
You’ll be able to take it to the store, swipe it, and have your wallet’s funds instantly converted to pay for whatever purchases you make.
It’s even planned to have reward systems such as cashback percentages, crypto bonuses, and other things that make an investor’s head spin.
Peer-to-Peer Trading
With a lot of more basic platforms, you only really get to engage with the exchange. You buy and sell coins on a large, open market, and you can hold them in your wallet. With the Gemini Peer-to-Peer Portal, you can trade directly with other users.
To give you a very basic example, this means if you know someone who uses Gemini, and they’re selling a service, you can pay them through the Gemini platform in any accepted form of crypto.
There is one downside to this feature, though. Once you use crypto, it’s almost impossible to get it back.
So, you have to be careful with who you’re paying and make sure you don’t use it to pay any shady business.
New York State Trust Insurance
You don’t have to worry about hackers taking all your funds if you use Gemini. The custody storage program on Gemini is operated as a New York State Trust, and it’s fully insured.
So, on the off chance a hacker manages to break through Gemini’s SOC 2 security measures and steals your crypto, the custody program will pay it right back.
Gemini Trade Experience
The trade experience on Gemini is above-standard. Not only does the streamlined interface make navigating your options easy, but there are also a ton of options available to you.
You can set limited orders with automatic cancel parameters, recurring orders, maker-taker orders, and several others that automate the experience.
Gemini Fees and Limits
Fees and limits are a big part of every crypto exchange. Gemini has some of the highest and most generous limits available, but it also has some fairly high fees.
Transaction Fees
Gemini charges a transaction fee when buying and selling crypto on its platforms, such as the web or mobile applications.
The fee ranges from a flat fee for less expensive transactions to a percentage of more expensive orders, as shown in the chart below.
| TOTAL TRADE AMOUNT | FEE |
|---|---|
| $10 or less | $0.99 |
| More than $10 and up to $25 | $1.49 |
| More than $25 and up to $50 | $1.99 |
| More than $50 and up to $200 | $2.99 |
| More than $200 | 1.49% of order value |
Convenience Fees
On top of the transaction fee, Gemini also charges a convenience fee, which is about 0.5% of the current market price of the coin that you’re buying.
For example, if Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading at $50,000 for 1 BTC, you’d actually pay $50,250 for 1 BTC including the fee.
Deposit Fees
Gemini doesn’t charge any fees for depositing money into your account unless you use a debit card.
| DEPOSIT TYPE | FEE |
|---|---|
| All cryptocurrencies, ACH transfer, Gemini dollar (redemption) | Free |
| Wire Transfer | Free |
| Debit Card Transfer | 3.49% of the total purchase amount |
Withdrawal Fees
Gemini 10 free withdrawals per month of crypto or U.S dollars from your account. After 11 or more withdrawals, you will incur a fee, which depends on the value of that currency.
While Gemini’s fees are higher than crypto exchanges like Voyager, these charges are still significantly less than Coinbase’s.
Limits:
Gemini put some transfer limits for both individual and institutional accounts. Those limits are as follow:
- Bank Transfers (available for US customers): Bank transfers are limited to $5000 a day for unverified accounts with a monthly maximum of $30,000. However, fully verified accounts can enjoy a whopping $100,000 daily bank transfer limit.
- Debit Cards: All debit card transfers are limited to $1000 per day.
- Wires: Money wires have no limits, but there is a minimum withdrawal requirement of $100.
Is Gemini Safe and Secure?
Security is one of Gemini’s most impressive features, if we’re being honest. Since the platform launched to the public in 2015, it has not been successfully hacked even a single time.
This spot-free record is largely due to the ultra-secure SOC 2 security format that works as the first line of defense against would-be cybercriminals.
However, even if the platform were to be hacked, Gemini has some high-end measures in place to keep your funds safe.
For starters, all USD funds are insured by the FDIC up to $250,000. For almost all investors, that’s more USD than they’re likely to have in their account at any given time.
That probably applies to you, too. So, you can rest easy knowing you’re not going to lose your fiat currency if anyone does manage to break through Gemini’s security features.
For your crypto assets, insurance isn’t even necessary. Nearly all of the digital assets on Gemini’s platform are stored in “cold storage”.
That’s crypto talk for offline servers. In essence, the platform simply keeps track of the coins and tokens you buy.
The digital files are stored on servers that are not connected to the internet. This means a hacker would have to physically break into the facility and hack the server itself to take any of your digital currency. Needless to say, that’s not something you have to worry about.
Gemini Customer Support
Despite the top-notch security and multitude of high-quality features, Gemini isn’t perfect. Its customer support is one of its biggest shortcomings.
A fair amount of customers have had issues transferring their withdrawals to their banks. However, this isn’t a problem that is purely Gemini’s fault.
Right now, many governments are fighting to regulate crypto and get their piece of the pie. This back-and-forth fighting has caused some banks to ban transactions coming from the platform, or it creates annoying slowdowns when you go to get your funds.
Gemini can’t control what a bank decides to do, but they can expand their customer service to speedily explain why these issues occur rather than providing customers with cookie-cutter responses and a lack of communication.
We recommend speaking to your bank before signing up with any crypto platform to avoid this annoying issue.
Gemini Wallet
Like most platforms, Gemini has a built-in wallet protected by the same SOC 2 security model as the rest of the platform.
It’s free, makes buying and selling easy, and any fiat you have in it is insured up to $250,000.
However, some customers have had issues transferring their funds to an off-site hard wallet. So keep that in mind.
Gemini Pro Version
Gemini does offer Gemini Active Traders as an advanced, or “pro”, version of the platform.
Active Traders has more advanced tracking, selling, buying, and holding features than the base version, and it’s completely free to use if you’re already a registered user of the base version.
However, beginners should start with the base version. The Active Traders version can be complicated if you’re not an advanced investor.
Who Is Gemini Best for?
Gemini will work well for beginners and experts alike. The dual-platform model allows beginners to dip their toes into a highly streamlined and simplistic way to trade, but the Active Traders platform has all the features professional investors need to maximize their ROIs.
Conclusion
Gemini is an outstanding crypto exchange that is accessible to beginners and pros alike, and it’s easily the safest exchange available. 99% of the time, its customers are fully satisfied and capable of making a ton of money safely.
However, some customer service issues ruin the experience for a small percentage of users, and Gemini should divert some of its focus to resolving those issues.
