Category: Gemini

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Crypto News Gemini Jobs

Crypto Job Rout Continues as Gemini and BlockFi Execute Second Round of Layoffs

Leading US crypto companies BlockFi and Gemini are launching another round of layoffs just a month after both companies announced cutting more than 10 percent of their respective staff complements due to “extreme market conditions”.

‘At Least 68’ Jobs to Go From Gemini

Gemini was reported to have issued an internal bulletin regarding a new round of layoffs on July 18, but it’s unknown exactly how many employees are affected. According to an unnamed source close to the company, however, at least 68 staff members – or 7 percent of the workforce – have been laid off due to “extreme cost-cutting”:

BlockFi Offers Buyouts

On the other hand CeFi lender BlockFi is offering employees buyouts – 10 weeks of paid leave and 10 weeks of health insurance – to resign. If accepted, employees would still be eligible for unemployment benefits.

Last month, BlockFi CEO Zac Prince announced that at least 20 percent of staff – or 170 employees – would be shed. “This is not a decision we take lightly and is one that brings us great sadness,” Prince tweeted at the time.

May’s market crash has led some other leading crypto companies, including Crypto.com and Coinbase, to downsize. Coinbase said that while the firm experienced “unprecedented growth” during early 2021’s bullish market, it blindfolded the company into a thumbed hiring spree. The exchange laid off more than 1,100 employees in June.

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Crypto News Crypto.com Gemini Jobs Markets

BlockFi and Crypto.com to Shed 400+ Jobs Amid Crypto Rout

Lending platform BlockFi and major cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com are set to cut more than 400 jobs between them in the wake of this week’s 12 percent crypto market slump.

In a June 14 tweet, BlockFi CEO Zac Prince said “roughly 20 percent” of its workforce would be shed, which amounts to 170 employees:

Tweeting last weekend, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek quoted corresponding figures of 5 percent and 260 employees:

Latest in a Line of Job Shedders

Both bosses blamed this year’s steadily deteriorating crypto market following its US$3 trillion peak last November. But surely the catalyst for the pending dismissals would have been this week’s 12 percent plunge, which pushed the market cap below US$1 trillion.

Neither firm is unique in its intention to downsize staff. Gemini, helmed by Winklevoss twins Cameron and Tyler, has cut 10 percent of its workforce, and Coinbase, another major US exchange, has withdrawn more than 300 job offers and introduced a hiring freeze. Middle Eastern exchange Rain Financial has reportedly culled “dozens” of jobs.

Gone Big Too Soon?

Like BlockFi, Crypto.com was riding high just a matter of months ago. In November last year, it paid a reported US$700 million in naming rights for the Los Angeles sports and culture arena formerly known as the Staples Center. Earlier this year, the company signed a five-year sponsorship deal worth A$25 million with the Australian Football League. The highly visible exchange, whose name is now ubiquitous in sporting circles, also has partnerships with the UFC, Formula 1, Italian Football Lega Serie A and French football powerhouse Paris Saint-Germain.

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Coinbase Crypto News Gemini

Coinbase to Downscale, Announces Hiring Freeze and Rescinds Accepted Offers

US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase recently announced it would extend its hiring freeze “for the foreseeable future” as a response to current market conditions. Additionally, the company intends to rescind accepted offers from candidates who had taken employment positions but had yet to start in their roles.

Coinbase Responds to Crypto Market Conditions

As per a blog post written by chief people officer L.J. Brock, Coinbase is looking at implementing cost-cutting measures as a response to “current market conditions and ongoing business prioritisation efforts”.

Moreover, Brock said the exchange would have to rescind “a number of outstanding offers for people who have not started yet”.

This is not a decision we make lightly, but is necessary to ensure we are only growing in the highest-priority areas.

L.J. Brock, chief people officer, Coinbase

In February, Coinbase announced it was on a hiring spree for 6,000 new employees. Less than a month ago, Brock published a tweet saying the firm was actively hiring, though shortly after it was announced that Coinbase had halted the process.

It seems the company is now taking a more severe turn. Naturally, the decision has impacted a vast number of candidates who had been accepted for roles within the company – some of them had pinned their hopes on a position to stay in the US legally:

On May 26, Crypto News Australia reported that Coinbase had entered Fortune 500, a list ranking the 500 top US companies by revenue. However, the firm’s Q1 financial results for 2022 weren’t so encouraging as it suffered a US$430 million loss:

Exchanges Feeling Pain of a Bearish Market

It seems exchanges are feeling the pain of a bearish crypto market, and Coinbase has been one of the most affected firms. As Crypto News Australia reported last month, a lot of retail investors are leaving the crypto market.

Coinbase isn’t the only cryptocurrency exchange that seems compelled to downscale its headcount. A few days ago, Winklevoss-led Gemini announced it would part ways with 10 percent of its workforce due to market conditions.

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Banking Crypto News Gemini Regulation

CBA Account Holders May Soon Get Interest on their Crypto

Last month, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) became the first in Australia to offer crypto to its customers. Now the country’s largest bank is moving to offer customers the ability to earn interest on their crypto.

CBA Leans on Gemini for Crypto

In addition to partnering with Gemini for its crypto offering, CBA also recently invested in the exchange’s first external fund raise, suggesting that the relationship went a lot deeper than initially suspected.

Now, according to a report by The Australian, CBA and the New York-based crypto services provider are planning to launch a “crypto interest account” to Australian customers whereby they would receive a fixed interest rate for lending their digital assets into the broader market.

Speaking about the Australian market, Andy Meehan, chief compliance officer for Gemini Asia Pacific, suggested that:

We think CBA broke the mould in your market, which is an attractive market – in fact is it a highly developed investment market that has a long tradition of people being very quick to take up new finance technology when it arrives on the scene.

Andy Meehan, chief compliance officer, Gemini Asia Pacific

He went on to say:

CBA has forced the regulators to move much faster than they might have naturally desired, but you’ll see every one of your banks offer crypto services very soon.

Andy Meehan, chief compliance officer, Gemini Asia Pacific

CBA, the First Domino to Fall?

With most Australian banks offering negative real interest rates on savings, investors are becoming increasingly drawn to alternative investments such as crypto.

CBA has been a trailblazer in the space and competitors are no doubt working behind the scenes to catch up. CBA chief executive Matt Comyn recently told Bloomberg that banks needed to be involved in the adoption of technology underpinning crypto and the insatiable demand from customers to trade them. He was also quoted as saying “we [CBA] see risks in participating, but we see bigger risks in not participating”.

It remains to be seen how the regulators will respond to CBA’s crypto interest product. Presumably they will draw guidance from Gemini itself, which as a New York-registered exchange is one of the most heavily regulated entities in the space. If it aligns with Gemini’s offshore product, you’d expect depositors’ crypto to be lent to institutional investors and for the customer to receive different rates for different cryptos, depending largely on the demand and use of such digital assets.

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Australia Banking Crypto News Gemini

CBA Makes Investment in Winklevoss Twins’ Gemini in $400 Million Fund Raise

The Winklevoss twins have several claims to fame, the least of which is founding one of the more successful exchanges in the world, Gemini. This week, the company announced a US$400 million fund raise to further grow the business, with a rather surprising investor participating in the investment – Australia’s largest bank, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).

Gemini Valued at $7 Billion

After self-funding the business for the past seven years, the Winklevoss twins have raised Gemini’s first round of capital, bringing the company’s valuation to US$7.1 billion. After enjoying success in Singapore, the company announced earlier this year it would be expanding into Australia.

While the twins retain 75 percent ownership in the company, it is estimated that their net worth would almost double from US$6 billion to US$10 billion as a result of the deal. The investment round was led by digital asset giant Morgan Creek Digital, to the tune of U$75 million, and included several others including Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners and CBA.

It is believed that part of the investment would be to expand the company’s reach into the metaverse, a theme the brothers picked up in early 2021, ahead of arch-rival Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg’s Facebook recently rebranded to Meta as part of the company’s move into the space, but it has been met with much derision.

There’s these two parallel paths, in terms of technology right now …There’s a centralised path, like Facebook or Fortnite, that is one step away from being a metaverse, and that’s totally fine. But there is another path, which is the decentralised metaverse and that’s the metaverse where we believe there’s greater choice, independence and opportunity, and there is technology that protects the rights and dignity of individuals.

Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder, Gemini

CBA’s Surprise Investment

CBA’s investment into Gemini is surprising in one sense, but entirely predictable on the other. On the one hand, you have a situation where traditional banks, including CBA, have been debanking crypto businesses in Australia, allegedly on the basis of operational and/or compliance risk. Cynically, you could argue that compliance was used as a guise to stifle competition and prevent the outflow of funds onto exchanges.

However, on the other hand, you see CBA taking the lead by its recent announcement that clients could buy crypto directly through its app, incidentally through a partnership with Gemini.

As traditional banks start to feel the squeeze of customers’ funds pouring onto crypto exchanges, it isn’t surprising that they would like to retain control of the funds on their own platform – or, failing which, investment in platforms benefiting from such outflows.

In this case, if you can’t beat them, invest in them.

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Basic Attention Token Crypto News Gemini

Brave Launches In-Browser Crypto Swaps with 20% BAT Rebates

Privacy browser Brave is to launch a new Brave Wallet and is including a Brave Swap Rewards program that will allow users to recoup 20 percent of their swap fees.

The release of the new unified Brave Wallet for desktop and mobile will allow millions of users access to web3, new Brave Rewards, and emerging financial protocols.

The browser, which claims to be three times faster than Chrome and now has over 36.2 million monthly active users, features security and privacy measures such as in-built ad blocking, password manager, and private windows. Users can earn Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) rewards by watching privacy-respecting advertisements and online content creators can earn BAT with Brave Rewards by publishing content online.

With Brave Rewards integrated into the Brave Wallet, users will be able to modify their Rewards experience, gain access to previous months’ statements, and view their earned and contributed BAT for the current month.

A demonstration video published by Brave provides a swap overview:

Understanding the Brave Swap Rewards Program

Brave receives a small percentage of each Brave Swap as a fee for providing the service, like MetaMask and other decentralised exchange aggregators (DEX) swap providers. As part of the program, Brave will allocate up to 20 percent of total Brave Swap fees every month to the Swap Rewards program.

Taking part in the Brave Rewards Program enables Brave Ads by default, which then gives users the opportunity to earn additional BAT while using the browser.

Distributing the Rewards

Members of Swap Rewards who have not yet verified their Rewards wallet with a partner wallet service such as Gemini will be able to claim virtual BAT for their monthly Swap Rewards that they will be able to use within the Brave Rewards ecosystem.

Users who have verified their Reward wallets will receive their rebates as direct deposits into their verified Rewards wallets. Those who participate in the program earn BAT via the Rewards private ads system and the Swap Rewards rebate, which essentially reduces swap fees.

Powered by 0x DEX Liquidity

0x API has announced it will be officially powering Brave Swap, the Brave browser-based DEX. Brave is planning to build a decentralised exchange aggregator (DEX) that will allow users to swap tokens at the best market prices from within their Brave crypto wallet.

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Crypto Exchange Crypto News Crypto Wallets Cryptocurrencies Gemini Trading

Crypto-Friendly Browser Brave Integrates Gemini Wallet Support

Gemini and Brave have partnered to make it easier for users to buy, sell, store and earn crypto when using the Brave browser. Together they are building a user-centric internet with the power of crypto.

The Gemini Trading Widget is now available in Brave’s Nightly version (the browser’s testing and development version of Brave) and will go live in Brave’s general release in coming weeks. This integration will allow Brave users to engage with crypto via the new Gemini Trading Widget in a simple and secure manner.

With the Brave browser’s Gemini Trading Widget, users can easily trade any crypto asset listed on the Gemini exchange without having to leave the browser. The Brave browser blocks ads and trackers and other identifying software used by websites to monitor visitors, thus providing a much faster (3-6x) and more private internet experience.

Brave also rewards users for participating: users can earn Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) by opting in to view privacy-preserving Brave ads and online creators can earn BAT with Brave Rewards through publishing online content.

Controlling Your Online Privacy

Brave has been praised as the browser of choice for those looking for more privacy and better security. An alternative browser such as Google Chrome individually identifies and constantly tracks users as they browse, installing cookies and gathering all sorts of private information, including keeping records of your browsing history. By using Brave, your data remains private and on your device – making it the browser of choice for many crypto enthusiasts.

Meanwhile, Gemini has lately become a leader in the Asia Pacific crypto landscape, as Crypto News Australia reported in July, which can only help consolidate its new partnership with Brave.

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Binance Crypto News Education Gemini Jobs

Crypto Recruitment Shortage: Exchanges are Competing with Banks For Top Talent

If you’ve ever thought of working in crypto, now is the time to reskill and get hired. The crypto industry is growing at such a rapid pace it can’t keep up with the demand for new employees to fill hundreds of open positions.

There are employment opportunities everywhere right now in crypto, with the world’s biggest exchanges posting new positions daily.

“We are hiring aggressively,” Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said by email this week.

We see the industry growing exponentially on a year-to-year basis, and we need to scale our team to cope with it. We are a geo-equal-opportunity employer. We don’t mind where people are, as long as they produce results.

CZ, Binance CEO

Binance Has 800 Positions Up For Grabs

Binance is the biggest exchange and currently has over 800 positions advertised worldwide through its LinkedIn employment portal. Winklevoss twins-led Gemini plans to expand its Singapore team from 30 to 50 by December. Hong Kong-based Crypto.com currently lists more than 200 openings, more than half of them based in Asia.

According to Neil Dundon, founder of recruitment agency Crypto Recruit, curiosity regarding jobs in crypto has expanded about five to 10 times in the past nine months. Despite that popular interest, however, finding candidates with relevant experience is proving difficult, resulting in some companies being forced to lower their expectations.

A single job posting can attract hundreds of applicants. In terms of length of experience, one or two years is good enough these days. The skills shortage is so bad at the moment that companies are casting a wider net.

Neil Dundon, Crypto Recruit

Just as the best NFL or EPL football players are snapped up by teams with the deepest pockets, highly skilled crypto candidates are being poached by the banks with the biggest wallets: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are now offering crypto and trading services to their clients and have scouted top talent to fill these positions.

While investment banks are recruiting the best in the business to come and work for them, smaller companies are having a hard time competing, finding it difficult to source people with crypto experience.

Gemini Job Benefits Include Unlimited Vacation Leave and a Profit-Sharing Program

To sweeten the deal and entice the best employees, Gemini’s APAC managing director Jeremy Ng said the company is considering offering benefits including unlimited vacation leave and a profit-sharing program to attract talent globally.

Even big tech companies such as Facebook and online retail giant Amazon have big plans to expand into crypto. While Facebook works on its Diem token (formerly known as Libra), Amazon recently posted a blockchain job listing for a Head of Product.

The long and the short of it:

  • There are hundreds of new jobs in crypto being listed every day
  • There are not enough job candidates with crypto credentials to meet the demand for these positions
  • Big banks are scooping up all the top talent for themselves
  • Crypto exchange Gemini is sweetening the deal by offering unlimited vacation leave and a profit-sharing program to attract talent globally
  • Roles for developers and customer support are areas of high demand.

Blockchain Collective, an educational body for blockchain learning, plans to meet the high demand for crypto job candidates by partnering with TAFE Queensland to offer an advanced diploma in Applied Blockchain.

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Crypto News Gambling Gemini

Las Vegas Casino Partners With Gemini Exchange To Offer Crypto Services To Customers

Las Vegas Casino Partners With Gemini Exchange To Offer Crypto Services To Customers

Major casino group Resorts World Las Vegas has teamed up with crypto exchange Gemini to “enhance the overall guest journey”.

Resorts World Las Vegas has affiliated operations in the Americas, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the Bahamas, and it is committed to being the most crypto friendly major casino group in operation. This may offer a decisive competitive advantage in the cut-throat international gaming market, which is struggling to rebound from lockdowns and impediments on global travel. Gemini also recently partnered with Mastercard to launch crypto rewards credit card.

Whether it’s the ability for their customers to use cryptocurrency at Resorts World Las Vegas or convert dollars into crypto, being one of the first to support crypto is a great way to meet the needs of the next generation of customers and provide a 21st century experience.

Tyler Winklevoss, CEO of Gemini

Gamblers, cryptos and banks

This type of adoption adds to the wide-scale applications of crypto currencies for everyday transactions. Gambling high rollers have long struggled with anti-money laundering (AML) legislation as their pastime requires the wiring of huge volumes of cash, often across international borders. For example, Bank of America received significant customer backlash when it froze the accounts of poker superstar Daniel Negreanu for apparent violations of its AML code for legitimate gambling related transactions.

Crypto-holding casino gamblers of all bankroll sizes will welcome the opportunity to deploy their funds with the least amount of intermediary transactions. Complicated cross-border money wire transfers may become a thing of the past as crypto wallets are not subject to the same onerous restrictions as bank accounts. Seamless crypto usage, in this case to pay for resort stays and gambling, may bring advantages to the entire business ecosystem.

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Australia ChainLink Gemini

Gemini Announces Support for AUD as ChainLink Captures Position of 5th-Biggest Crypto, Soars Beyond $18

New York-based cryptocurrency exchange Gemini has announced new support for AUD, providing Australian traders with the ability to buy and sell cryptocurrency — including LINK — without costly exchange rates.

Announced on August 17, the new Australian Dollar support will allow Australian users of the market-leading cryptocurrency exchange to deposit AUD directly to Gemini wallets. The announcement follows the integration of three new currencies earlier this year, Orchid, Dai, and Chainlink — the last of which has recently experienced a stratospheric rise in value.

Gemini Expands Aussie Trader Access to Chainlink

Until recently, it’s been relatively difficult for Australian traders to trade AUD directly for altcoins — or cryptocurrencies that are not listed within the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap. Very few Australian cryptocurrency exchange platforms provide users with the ability to exchange AUD for Chainlink (LINK), for example — with exceptions such as Aus/NZ-based Easy Crypto.

Chainlink’s continual climb into double-digit values has captured the attention of cryptocurrency traders and investors around the world, justifying the efforts of long-term supporters of the LINK token who refer to themselves as “Link Marines.”

What is Chainlink, and What Does it Do?

Chainlink is primarily concerned with interoperability between blockchain networks and the “real world,” described as a “framework for building decentralized oracle networks that give your smart contract access to secure and reliable data inputs and outputs.” 

While that may sound complex, the core rationale behind it is relatively straightforward — Chainlink aims to bridge the gap between the blockchain networks that cryptocurrencies operate on and real-world data.

Chainlink can be used, for example, to enrich the use of smart contracts — immutable contracts built on blockchain networks. While smart contract technology presents unique use cases, such as the rapidly-growing decentralized finance industry, Chainlink’s oracle technology opens the door to blockchain-based identity, internet of things applications, the insurtech industry, or medical data.