$400M Funding Helps Gemini Build Itself in the Decentralized Metaverse

The Winklevoss twins’ cryptocurrency exchange Gemini will allocate funds from its $400 million funding round to create “a Gemini experience in a different metaverse.”

On November 18, Gemini announced that it has completed a round of equity growth financing of US$400 million at a valuation of US$7.1 billion, which is the first time the company has sought external financing. The round was led by Morgan Creek Digital, with participation from 10T, ParaFi, Newflow Partners, and Marcy Venture Partners, among others.

Notably, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), which also backed the round, has also partnered with Gemini to launch the first cryptocurrency trading service offered by one of Australia’s big four banks.

"With this round of financing, Gemini will continue to bring simple, innovative and secure products to the market and advance its regional expansion," the statement read.

In an interview with Forbes published on November 18, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss outlined their plans to expand Gemini into the Metaverse.

Tyler pointed out that the company's goal is to expand itself into multiple metaverses, rather than "establishing a large number of branches in the real world (meatspace)"-citing the popular meme-based description of physical reality:

"We're going to build a Gemini experience in a different metaverse, where you can go into a Gemini and trade, but it's going to be immersive, not on a phone."

According to Forbes, the twins will retain 75 percent ownership of Gemini, and Morgan Creek general partner Sachin Jaitly will join the company’s board as part of his firm’s $75 million investment in the crypto platform.

The move would pit the pair again against Mark Zuckerberg, who fought in court over ownership of Facebook more than a decade ago. The twins sued Zuckerberg in 2004, accusing him of stealing their intellectual property to create Facebook, and settled in court in 2011 for $65 million.

Cameron emphasized to Forbes that unlike the centralized roadmap for the metaverse that companies like “Facebook or Fortnite” have developed, Gemini aims to take a decentralized route because they believe it will bring greater benefits to users :

“But there is another route, and that is the decentralized metaverse, where we believe in more choice, independence and opportunity, and technology that protects the rights and dignity of the individual.”

“Decentralization is a spectrum,” Cameron added, noting that “we want to continue moving in the direction of empowerment.”

The twins snapped up some land in The Sandbox metaverse in early April, with Tyler noting at the time that their plan was to build Gemini's cryptocurrency exchange and NFT marketplace, Nifty Gateway, in the play-and-earn-focused virtual world. .

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