Gemini

Is Gemini safe?

For US customers, mostly yes. Gemini is a trust company chartered by the New York Department of Financial Services, it has been listed on Nasdaq since September 2025, and its exchange wallets have never been hacked. We score it 77/100.

The asterisk is Gemini Earn. In November 2022 more than 200,000 Earn customers found that the crypto they had lent through Gemini to a lender called Genesis was frozen. They got it all back, but only after about 18 months. That episode is the main reason Gemini scores below Coinbase and Kraken.

What went wrong with Gemini Earn

Earn launched in 2021 and paid interest of up to 7.4% a year. Behind the scenes, customers' crypto was lent to Genesis Global Capital, part of Digital Currency Group. When FTX collapsed, Genesis froze withdrawals on 16 November 2022 and filed for bankruptcy in January 2023.

NYDFS later found that Gemini had not done proper due diligence on Genesis. In its February 2024 settlement Gemini paid a $37 million fine, agreed to contribute $40 million to Earn users' recovery and committed to return at least $1.1 billion. In the end Earn users received their crypto back in kind on 29 May 2024, worth about $2.2 billion by then according to Gemini's 10-K, and the last 3% on 20 June. Getting coins back in kind mattered: prices had risen sharply, so customers did better than if they had been paid the November 2022 dollar value.

The lesson goes beyond Gemini. Any "earn" or yield product on an exchange means your coins leave custody and become a loan to someone else. That is a different, higher risk than simply holding them on the platform.

Custody: the trust charter

Gemini's strongest point is legal. As a New York trust company it acts as a fiduciary and must keep customer assets segregated from its own, under NYDFS supervision. Few exchanges have that. Most crypto is held offline in cold storageCold storageKeeping crypto keys on a device or medium that is not connected to the internet, which protects them from most online attacks.More in the glossary, and Gemini says it runs SOC 1 and SOC 2 audits of its controls.

Being a listed company adds a second check. Since its IPO, Gemini files audited annual accounts with the SEC that show customer custodial assets and liabilities. It does not offer a Merkle-treeMerkle treeA way to combine many records into one short code, so that each person can check their own record is included without seeing anyone else's.More in the glossary proof of reservesProof of reservesA report in which a crypto exchange shows that it holds enough coins to cover all customer balances, ideally checked by an outside firm.More in the glossary where you can check your own balance.

A smaller footprint since 2026

On 5 February 2026 Gemini announced it would leave the UK, the EU and other European countries and Australia, cutting up to 200 jobs, about a quarter of its staff, and keeping only its US and Singapore businesses. Accounts in those regions went withdrawal-only in early March and were closed on 6 April 2026. Its chief operating officer, chief financial officer and chief legal officer left on 17 February, according to an 8-K filing.

For US users this changes little. For anyone who still had an account abroad, it is a reminder that an exchange can withdraw from your country with a few weeks' notice.

At home Gemini has added products and licences. The CFTC designated its affiliate Gemini Titan, LLC as a contract market in December 2025, which lets it run prediction markets, and on 30 April 2026 licensed another affiliate, Gemini Olympus, LLC, as a clearing house. Since July 2026 the app also offers US stock trading through Gemini Galactic Markets, LLC, an introducing broker that is a FINRA and SIPC member; Apex Clearing holds the shares. Those shares have SIPC cover, unlike the crypto in the same app, and the event contracts are regulated derivatives, not deposits held by the trust company.

Enforcement and lawsuits

Year	Authority	Outcome
2024	NYDFS	$37 million fine over Earn due diligence
2024	New York attorney general	$50 million settlement for Earn investors
2025	CFTC	$5 million over statements made in 2017 about its bitcoin futures
2026	SEC	Earn lawsuit dismissed without any payment (28 January)

None of these involves a hack or misuse of exchange balances, but the Earn cases show a serious lapse in judgement about who customer assets were lent to.

Gemini's enforcement record is also unusual in that it largely flows from one product. Its exchange and custody business has not been accused of misusing customer funds.

Practical steps for Gemini users

• Use a hardware security key or passkeyPasskeyA way to sign in without a password. Your device holds a key tied to one website or app and unlocks it with your fingerprint, face or PIN.More in the glossary for login; Gemini supports both.
• Turn on the withdrawal address allowlist so crypto can only leave to addresses you have approved.
• Be careful with any yield or staking product. Read who holds the assets and whether you are a lender to a third party.
• Do not keep large amounts on any exchange. Even with a trust charter, a hardware walletHardware walletA small dedicated device that stores crypto private keys offline and signs transactions inside the device, so the keys never touch your computer.More in the glossary removes counterparty risk.

How we scored it

Custody (88) and audited reserves (88) are Gemini's strongest factors. Legal record (60) and security history (68) are the weakest because of Earn, which locked customer assets for 18 months. For a US-licensed broker alternative, see Robinhood Crypto.