Gemini Exchange Eyes Wealth Management With Latest Acquisition

The Winklevoss twins-owned Gemini crypto exchange is getting into wealth management services, as evidenced by its latest big acquisition.

On Jan. 13, Gemini announced a deal to purchase financial management firm Bitria for an undisclosed amount. Bitria has a digital assets platform and offers wealth management tools for financial advisors.

According to CNBC, the $7 billion dollar valued Gemini has signaled a major push into wealth management services with this latest move.

Gemini’s global head of business development, Dave Abner, said that “the move creates one of the industry’s first full-service digital asset custodians for advisors,”

Institutional Product Expansion

Gemini has plans to combine its crypto exchange and custody services with Bitria’s portfolio management programs. This would allow financial advisors to carry out more advanced operations such as tax-loss harvesting, Abner added. Other services will include portfolio rebalancing, fee collection and billing, account planning, and data connectivity. Speaking to CNBC, he continued:  

“Advisors manage the biggest pool of money in the country right now, and they’re hearing from their clients that want access to crypto,”

Gemini is aiming for a one-stop-shop solution for investors and advisors to effectively manage both traditional assets and crypto investments.

Abner added that Gemini is already the largest service provider to crypto ETFs globally, and it is now “moving into the wealth space,” and aiming to be the first to do so.

“Nobody else in the crypto space is looking at servicing the wealth management community the way that Gemini is,”

Gemini first partnered with Bitria in August 2020 when the firm was called Blockchange. Bitria’s staff and co-founder Daniel Eyre will be joining the Gemini team. Eyre commented that the future of wealth management “lies in digital assets and blockchain technology.”

In late November, Gemini’s chief compliance officer Andy Meehan called for open mindedness from financial regulators in what is likely to be the year of crypto regulations.

The Year of M&A

This year could see a surge in mergers and acquisitions as the world’s largest exchanges expand their operations beyond crypto trading. On Jan. 12, Coinbase announced the acquisition of Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulated derivatives exchange FairX as it makes plans to offer crypto derivatives to U.S. clients.

This week, FTX U.S. announced that it was considering a foray into stock trading, which would put the exchange in direct competition with Robinhood and eToro.

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