Crypto Exchange Gemini Slashes Jobs Amid Exit From Europe, Australia

Publicly traded crypto exchange Gemini (GEMI) is closing shop in the United Kingdom, European Union, and Australia and cutting a quarter of its employees, the firm announced on Thursday. 

The move aims to reduce Gemini’s operating expenses and improve its path to profitability, while allowing it to “focus” on what it said are clearer opportunities like prediction markets. 

“Gemini started in America in 2015. Since then, we expanded our areas of operation to more than 60 countries,” founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss wrote in a post about the decision. 

“These foreign markets have proven hard to win in for various reasons and we find ourselves stretched thin with a level of organizational and operational complexity that drives our cost structure up and slows us down,” they added. “And we don’t have the demand in these regions to justify them.”

The firm’s operations in the markets will slowly phase out over the next two months, with all accounts being closed on April 6. Those with balances will be moved into “withdrawal only” mode on March 5, and any users who wish to transfer balances to eToro can do so via a partnership between the firms.

Alongside the account closures, Gemini also announced that it was reducing its head count by 25% as it leans into artificial intelligence (AI) to help drive efficiency gains. With a leaner team in fewer geographic markets, the firm’s focus will shift to its prediction market offering and the American crypto market. 

The firm earned a CFTC license in December to open a predictions market platform in the United States, and since that time has garnered more than 10,000 users and $24 million in trading volume while “dramatically transforming” its marketplace. 

“Our thesis is that prediction markets will be as big or bigger than today’s capital markets,” the firm’s founders wrote. “They offer a profound and boundless opportunity to leverage the wisdom of the crowds and power of markets to provide unique insights into the future.” 

The opportunity in prediction markets has been noticed by investors during the last year, with market leaders Kalshi and Polymarket raising billions of dollars and earning valuations of at least $11 billion and $9 billion, respectively. (Disclaimer: Decrypt’s parent company Dastan also operates a prediction market platform, Myriad.)

Following the announcement, Gemini shares have fallen more than 7.5% on Thursday, recently changing hands at $6.77. The firm completed its IPO in September, with shares hitting the open market at $28—about 313% higher than its current trading price. 

Last week, the firm announced it was closing its NFT platform Nifty Gateway, which it acquired in 2019 and was an integral part of the NFT and digital artwork craze in 2021-22.