Gemini IPO: shares of billionaire brothers' crypto exchange Winklevoss are available

Preliminary trading in shares of American crypto exchange Gemini Space Station, founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has started in the trading system for Freedom clients. The securities are available under the ticker symbol GEMI.US. Later on Friday, they will appear on the Nasdaq exchange, which recently agreed to become a strategic investor in Gemini.

Gemini raised $425 million in its IPO by pricing above its previously announced range and reducing the number of shares it offered. The cryptocurrency exchange sold about 15.2 million shares at $28 apiece. According to Bloomberg, demand for Gemini's securities during the bookbuild exceeded the initial offering (16.7 million shares) by more than 20 times. As a result of the IPO, the value of Gemini can be estimated at $3.3 billion, noted Reuters.

The placement was organized by Goldman Sachs, Citi, Morgan Stanley, Cantor Fitzgerald, Evercore ISI, Mizuho Securities, Truist Securities, Cohen & Company Securities, Keefe Bruyette Woods, Needham & Co. and Rosenblatt Securities. The shares will trade under the ticker symbol GEMI.

Initially, Gemini planned to sell shares at a price range of $17-19. A few days before the listing, the crypto exchange sharply increased the price range of the offering to $24-26.

Prior to its IPO, Gemini engaged Nasdaq as a strategic investor. According to Reuters' sources, Nasdaq agreed to buy $50 million worth of shares in the crypto exchange. For its part, the crypto exchange will provide Nasdaq's clients with the ability to store and stack crypto assets. In preparation for the listing, Gemini increased from 10% to 30% of the shares offered to retail investors. They will not be able to sell securities for a month after the start of trading.

The Winklevoss twin brothers were among the first public investors in bitcoin. They accidentally heard about the cryptocurrency while vacationing in Ibiza in 2012. At the time, bitcoin was worth less than $10. With the funds received as a result of a lawsuit with Mark Zuckerberg over their role in the creation of Facebook, Winklevossy bought 1% of all bitcoins that existed at the time, paying for them about $11 million. Thanks to the growing value of their crypto portfolio, the twins' fortune is now estimated at about $14 billion, Bloomberg writes.

The Winklevosses founded the crypto exchange Gemini in 2014. Tyler Winklevoss took over as CEO and Cameron as president. In 2021, they raised $400 million in an investment round that valued Gemini at $7.1 billion. The losing streak began for them in 2022 - after the FTX crypto exchange collapsed and the market crashed. Gemini and its lending partner Genesis then offered a cryptocurrency product called Gemini Earn, similar to a high-yield savings account, with a money-back guarantee for customers. But in November 2022, Genesis went bankrupt and more than 230,000 investors lost access to their assets worth about $1 billion. To settle the claims, Gemini had to pay $50 million in compensation to Gemini Earn participants.

The turning point for the Winklevosses came in June 2024, when they attended a Donald Trump fundraiser. The brothers quickly became big donors to the Republican Party and gave so much to Trump's campaign - $1 million each - that they were given some of the money back to avoid violating donation rules. In a speech in support of cryptocurrencies at the Bitcoin 2024 conference last summer, Trump mentioned the twins, calling them "model-looking men with big, beautiful brains." In August 2025, the twins donated $21 million in bitcoins to the Digital Freedom Foundation, which, as Tyler Winklevoss wrote on social media, will support Republicans and "supporters of President Trump's cryptocurrency agenda" in the upcoming U.S. congressional elections.

Gemini serves retail and institutional clients in more than 60 countries. Despite its relatively long presence in the market, Gemini is experiencing difficulties in trying to catch up with larger competitors, Bloomberg states. The agency cites Kaiko data showing that Gemini's U.S. market share was as high as 3 percent during the 2021 cryptocurrency boom, but was below that level for most of the next three years before rising sharply in the months before the IPO.

The exchange still derives the bulk of its revenue from trading commissions. Over time, however, it has expanded its reach to include an online marketplace for digital collectibles (NFT), a credit card with cryptocurrency rewards, and its own dollar-linked GUSD steiblcoin. GUSD's capitalization has almost halved over the past year, while the rest of the steiblcoin market has been growing rapidly, Bloomberg writes, citing CoinGecko.

Gemini's net loss in the first half of 2025 amounted to $282.5 million - almost seven times more than a year earlier. By the end of June, the cryptocurrency exchange had $1.5 billion in debt - nearly half of its expected market value. The bulk of the debt is due to loans from the Winklevoss family office and related parties. Gemini has promised to use some of the proceeds from the IPO to repay "third-party debt," and industry observers wonder if the IPO is simply a way for the Winklevosses to recoup some of their investment, Bloomberg notes.

Freedom Broker analyst Alem Bektemirov assigned a Buy recommendation to Gemini shares. Bektemirov estimated the company's value at $3.99 bln, taking into account the invested capital and future revenues at different stages of growth. The target price of $33.6 for Gemini shares, which he determined on this basis, implies a potential upside of 20% from the offering price.

Analytical service Barchart advises to temper expectations and not to consider the idea as a short-term one. On the contrary, investors who are long-term oriented and want to get a differentiated exposure to the crypto sector may consider Gemini as a serious investment option, the publication says.

Investment platform RockFlow rates Gemini as a risky bet on "pure crypto exposure " - exchange and custodial services. Gemini is an investment idea only for aggressive investors and for a small stake; conservative investors would be better off moving past Gemini stock and investing in the securities of cryptocurrency bank Figure Technology, which also went public this week, RockFlow believes.

TradingCalendar calls participation in Gemini's IPO a speculative idea with increased risks, points to the concentration of control in the hands of the founders (95% of votes after the IPO) and limited visibility on revenue. The company is still a "cat in the bag" in terms of financial prospects, its management structure is highly centralized, and it is entering a market that has already punished similar players for broken promises, the site says.

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Freedom clients will be able to get access to Gemini Space Station shares before the opening of the main exchange session. Trading will begin in the early pre-market format 2-3 hours before the opening of the US exchanges (from 15:30-16:30 Astana time). To participate, click on ticker GEMI.US.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor