Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Gemini receives New York DFS approval to trade additional virtual currencies

By J. Preston Carter, J.D., LL.M.

New York Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo has announced that the state’s Department of Financial Services has authorized Gemini Trust Company, LLC to offer custody services and trading of Zcash, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash on its virtual currency exchange based in New York City. According to the announcement, Gemini may begin Zcash trading immediately.

Tyler Winklevoss, chief executive officer of Gemini, commented, "We are proud be the first licensed exchange in the world to offer Zcash trading and custody services and look forward to providing customers with a safe, secure, and regulated place to buy, sell, and store Zcash, an incredible new form of digital cash."

The announcement describes Zcash as the digital cryptography-based asset of the Zcash network. The network supports two kinds of transactions: transparent and shielded. Transparent transactions operate similarly to Bitcoin in that the balance and the amounts of the transaction are publicly visible on the blockchain, while shielded transactions utilize z-addresses and do not appear on the public blockchain.

Gemini was also approved for potential future offerings of Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.

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