Winklevoss brothers are successful American rowers and Internet entrepreneurs. After their networking site ConnectU, they went to become venture capitalists for digital currencies. They raised the seed funding for bitcoin payment processor ‘BitInstant’ and claim to own 1% of Bitcoin in existence. Right from the onset, the brothers have always regarded Bitcoin as an equivalent to Gold. They have made conscious attempts to level Bitcoin Trading grounds by launching features that are prevalent in general asset trading. One such attempt recently is the launch of an ETF that has been doing rounds. Let’s look into the details of how this journey progressed and how is the ETF being handled.
Launch of Gemini Exchange:
The twins launched Gemini Exchange with safety and legality as flagship selling points. It was the world’s first fully regulated exchange based out of New York operating throughout North America, Asia and Europe. The exchange was few of the first to receive BitLicencse from city of New York making it completely legal. It later expanded the operations to Asia and Europe making it a successful venture across the globe.
Launch of Daily Auctions:
In an attempt to level the playing ground for Bitcoin and get it closer to adoption, they have planned to launch Bitcoin Auctions. Beginning at 5pm ET every day, Gemini will begin accepting two-sided bids in BTC/USD for the next day’s auction. After 22 hours and 50 minutes of bidding, Gemini will begin publishing “indicative auction prices” every minute. This gives the bidders a chance to pull out their bids until 3:59pm ET, after which the final bid closes. The closing price is the price at which the greatest aggregate buy and sell demand meets.
This methodology is generally present in currency and commodities market to determine closing and bidding prices. This is a conscious effort to bring Bitcoin to mainstream adoption.
Launch of the ETF:
The Brothers had moved for the request to launch an ETF and list it on Nasdaq in 2013. After number of trials, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has put the request for review. SEC is seeking additional public feedback as it weighs whether to approve the bid to launch the bitcoin ETF. The brothers have later moved to make amends their proposed ETF. They are now backing ‘State Street’ as administrator, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Gemini’s daily auction price at 4 p.m. EDT will be the price the NAV of the ETF. While investors are backing the ETF, how SEC would approve this game changing move is yet to be seen.
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