Gemini Announces Opening of Chicago Offices, Citing Institutional Demand

According to a Medium post penned by Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss, the company will be expanding to the financial hub that is Chicago. The move is in line with the Winklevoss twins’ ongoing mission to help “build the future of money.” The new offices in the financially significant city will provide an engineering hub, as well as support to the firm’s offices in Portland, Oregon and its headquarters in the heart of New York City. In the post, Tyler details why Chicago was chosen. Citing the city’s long financial legacy, intertwined with the history of commodities markets, the exchange co-founder calls the metropolis “a financial powerhouse.” With such a deep tradition of trading in the city, Gemini will have no shortage of talent from which to hire professionals to help craft their vision of the future of money.   Despite not being mentioned explicitly, Chicago is also home to both the CME Group and the Chicago Board Options Exchange – two significant names in the ongoing Bitcoin saga. The two exchanges were some of the first to offer Bitcoin futures. However, the latter has since dropped the financial product from its listings. The title of the Medium post is “Gemini Opens Chicago Office to Meet Growing Institutional Demand” yet, unfortunately, there is barely any reference to such demand. Winklevoss only mentions the much-lauded investor class at the very end of the piece. Even then, he doesn’t divulge the kind of information regarding which institutions or the kinds of volume to be expected. Instead, he elects to him at the demand:

“The time has never been more right to double-down on our mission to build safe and reliable institutional-grade infrastructure.”

As part of the post, Winklevoss also appeals to those that might be interested in joining the new office in Chicago. The long-time crypto asset advocate states that his company is interested in talking to those that think they can help the firm scale and encourages them to get in contact. What do you think? Are institutional investors likely to use the offerings from the likes of Gemini or will they prefer to wait for Bakkt to come online? Let’s hear your thoughts below.