Gemini plans to beat Binance through compliance, aims to become ‘fastest tortoise’ in race

The recent regulatory backlash against Binance could give a competitive advantage to regulated exchanges.

Gemini exchange co-founder, Cameron Winklevoss, has stated the company expects to overtake the current largest crypto exchange by volume, Binance, predicting its emphasis on compliance will win out as regulators increasingly crack down on unregulated exchanges.

As reported by Bloomberg on July 12, Cameron Winklevoss emphasized the importance of adhering to regulators’ demands, stating that Gemini is “playing the long game:”

“We’re trying to be the fastest tortoise in the race. The long game pays off over time.”

The comments come as Binance faces increasing regulatory pressure, with the U.K’s. Financial Conduct Authority told Binance that it wasn’t authorized to carry out regulated activities in the country in late June. A banking blockade followed as several high street banks curtailed their customer’s activities with the exchange.

Around the same time, Bloomberg also reported that the U.S. Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission were actively examining aspects of Binance’s business.

By contrast, Winklevoss stated that Gemini has been working alongside Bitstamp, Bittrex, and bitFlyer USA in an effort to clean up the industry and allay the concerns of financial regulators. The firm helped create the Virtual Commodity Association in 2018, which aims to root out bad behavior and prevent fraud and manipulation.

However, Binance continues to dominate crypto trade volumes, with its analytics platform, CoinMarketCap, estimating Binance’s daily spot trading volume is more than 100 times that of the Winklevoss twins’ exchange — with Binance hosting almost $14 billion worth of trade in 24 hours while Gemini posted $117.7 million.

Gemini is not the only U.S.-based exchange prioritizing compliance in its roadmap, with Coinbase published audited financials amid its IPO earlier this year. Kraken also plans to soon go public, having received a regulated bank charter in Wyoming in September 2020.