The bitcoin billionaires’ twins, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are not letting the bear market or two subsequent Bitcoin ETF rejections slow their pace. The Twin delved right into the mix and launched a regulated stablecoin.
Gemini Trust Company, digital exchange owned by the Winklevoss twins, unveiled the Gemini dollar, on Monday. A stablecoin that will allow people to send and receive U.S. dollars on the Ethereum cryptocurrency network. The newest token aims to maintain a value one on one with the U.S. dollar and has received approval from the New York Department of Financial Services.
The key strategy behind it is to bridge the gap between the traditional banking system and the cryptocurrency market. Though many people explore digital currencies as investments, they still hesitate to use it as currency i.e. to buy and sell goods. In order to facilitate such transactions, Gemini dollars enables people to move capital around the world by converting U.S. dollars to Gemini dollars and the reverse. The Gemini dollars will be deposited in a U.S. bank, State Street.
While the State Street representative declined to comment, Tyler Winklevoss told CNBC over the phone:
“It is really a matter of bringing your US dollars on to the blockchain and making them borderless 24/7.”
Winklevoss compares bitcoin with gold, in terms that both are used as a store of value, versus a means of payment, he elaborated:
“If something is a good store of value, you don’t want to spend it.”
Moreover, they note that the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies has not only raised questions about their viability but also presents as a potential risk for a plausible payment method. According to the data by CoinDesk, so far in 2018, bitcoin has lost 53 percent. Winklevoss states:
Gemini dollar is rolled out weeks after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected Winklevoss Twins’ Second Bitcoin ETF Proposal. While cryptocurrencies are looking forward to mass adoption, one of the major roadblocks they face is their volatility. This has led to a steady increase of interest in fixed-price cryptocurrencies called stablecoins, which are pegged to a stable asset like gold or currency. Tether is currently the largest stablecoin, but it faces criticism.
Michael Moro, the chief executive officer of Genesis Global Trading, told the news agency that his firm doesn’t have exposure to stable coins yet.
“Right now they’re purely used on exchanges (arbitrage or crypto-to-crypto trading), but I think their potential use cases are much greater than just that.”
Winklevoss believes that the stablecoins currently available in the market has issues with transparency and oversight. He argues:
“I don’t think any of the offerings do adequate job in solving the trust problem. This [Gemini dollar] is the world’s first regulated stablecoin.”
Read more: Winklevoss twins, the Bitcoin millionaires launches cryptocurrency organization
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