LIVELive Market
7.2
Solid
Best Crypto Exchanges · Review

Gemini

A New York trust company with strong custody engineering, still carrying the reputational bill for its Earn programme.

Best For
US users prioritising regulatory clarity
Headline Cost
ActiveTrader tiers are competitive; the simple interface is not
Founded
2014
Rank in category
10 of 15
Last Checked
August 2026
The short answer

Gemini offers genuinely strong custody engineering under New York trust regulation, and its reputation still carries the cost of the Earn programme, which froze customer funds in 2022 through a third-party lender. It scores 7.3/10, with security of 8.5 against thin liquidity and high retail pricing.

Score breakdown

Category rubric →
Security & custody · 25%
8.5
Regulatory standing · 20%
8.0
Liquidity & depth · 20%
6.0
Cost · 15%
6.0
Asset range · 10%
6.5
Support & UX · 10%
7.5

Works well for a specific use case, weaker outside it. The headline 7.2 is the weighted mean of these marks — see our methodology. Not financial advice.

What we liked

  • Operates as a NYDFS-regulated trust with SOC audits
  • Strong institutional custody product
  • Clear, conservative asset listing standards

Where it falls short

  • The Earn programme froze customer funds in 2022 via a third-party lender
  • Liquidity and asset range lag the larger venues

Gemini is one of very few crypto businesses that operates as a chartered trust company, supervised by the New York Department of Financial Services. That structure imposes capital requirements, custody rules and examination obligations that ordinary exchanges avoid entirely, and it is the reason institutions use Gemini Custody for assets they cannot leave with an unregulated venue.

What Gemini actually is

A spot exchange with a retail app and a professional ActiveTrader interface, an institutional custody business, the GUSD stablecoin and a credit card product. Its listing policy is conservative, screened against US securities analysis, so coverage is narrower than most competitors. Security engineering is a genuine strength: SOC 1 Type II and SOC 2 Type II examinations, hardware security modules, multi-signature cold storage and insurance on the hot-wallet portion.

Gemini Earn and what it cost

In 2022, Gemini Earn lent customer assets to Genesis, which halted withdrawals when its parent group collapsed. Around $900m of customer assets were frozen, and recovery took until 2024 through bankruptcy proceedings and a settlement with the New York Attorney General, with customers ultimately made whole in kind. The custody and exchange businesses were never the problem — the product was a lending programme marketed alongside them, and many users did not distinguish. It is the clearest example in this list of why a regulated custodian's yield product is not covered by the regulation that makes its custody safe.

Fees and liquidity

The retail app charges a spread plus a flat fee that is expensive on small amounts, while ActiveTrader runs a competitive maker-taker schedule — the same two-tier structure as Coinbase, with the same advice: use the professional interface. Liquidity is modest by comparison with the majors, adequate for BTC and ETH and thin elsewhere. Asset coverage is a few dozen tokens.

Who should use Gemini

US users who want a trust-company counterparty and institutions needing regulated custody with clean audit reports. It is not the venue for active trading or for anything beyond the largest assets, and its yield products deserve the scepticism the Earn episode earned. As a place to buy and hold majors with a supervised custodian, it remains a legitimate choice.

FAQ

Is Gemini safe?
The exchange and custody businesses have a strong record: NYDFS trust regulation, SOC examinations, cold storage and hot-wallet insurance, with no breach of customer assets. The Earn lending product was a separate and much weaker proposition.
What happened to Gemini Earn?
Assets lent through Earn to Genesis were frozen when Genesis halted withdrawals in 2022. Roughly $900m was affected, and customers were made whole in kind by 2024 through bankruptcy proceedings and a settlement with New York's Attorney General.
Is Gemini expensive?
The retail app is, through a spread plus flat fee. ActiveTrader uses a competitive maker-taker schedule for the same liquidity, so the interface you choose determines the cost.
What is GUSD?
Gemini's dollar stablecoin, issued under NYDFS supervision with reserves held in cash and treasuries. It is conservatively run and very small, with limited liquidity outside Gemini's own ecosystem.

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