Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are considering opening a second headquarters for their cryptocurrency exchange in the UK.
Despite describing the US as “hostile” to crypto, the Bitcoin billionaires said they do not plan to pull Gemini out of that market.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has come down hard on cryptocurrency firms in 2023 following the high-profile collapses of companies such as Terraform Labs, FTX and Celsius Labs.
However it has also been criticised for not taking a proactive approach to regulation – especially when compared with the UK and the EU bloc – leading to several companies pulling services out of the US.
“There are so many headwinds right now in the US, it’s hard to get anything done there. And so in order to keep building our business and invest in hiring, we have to look elsewhere,” Cameron Winklevoss told the Telegraph.
“And the UK is a great market to consider that. There’s a point in the future where we have a larger headcount outside of the US than in the US, and there’s probably a jurisdiction or country that… maybe is larger than the US.
“We’re not leaving the US, we’re going to continue to fight the good fight there. But we also understand that you can vote with your feet, and that’s our right and we will do that when faced with a hostile environment.”
Cryptocurrency shorts
Crypto consortium Fahrenheit has won a bid to acquire the institutional loan portfolio, staked cryptocurrencies, mining unit and additional alternative investments of insolvent lender Celsius Network.
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who plans to run for the White House, has backed the rights of people to trade in digital assets like Bitcoin while opposing a central bank digital currency.
Singapore VC Foresight Ventures has pledged an additional $10m to double its commitment to its Web3-focused Foresight X Accelerator and plans to invest up to $200,000 in promising blockchain projects.
A Montenegrin court has scrapped Terra founder Do Kwon’s bail of €800,000 due to flight fears. The South Korean has been charged in the US with a multi-billion-dollar fraud which helped trigger the crypto winter.
Basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal has been served with class-action lawsuits over his alleged promotion of FTX and NFT project Astrals – while commentating on an NBA playoffs game.
Crypto prices
The overall market cap of the 24,800 coins is at $1.10 trillion at the time of writing (8am UK), a 1.6% decrease in the last 24 hours, with Bitcoin trading around $26,250.
For round-ups of recent cryptocurrency news developments, click here.
For valuations of the top 100 coins by market cap in US dollars, plus 24-hour price change, see below.