We are excited to announce support for Litecoin trading and custody on Gemini. Beginning Saturday, October 13th at 9:30am EDT you will be able to deposit Litecoin into your Gemini account. Trading will begin on Tuesday, October 16th at 9:30am EDT. Litecoin (LTC) is the fourth digital asset available on the Gemini platform, joining Bitcoin, Ether, and Zcash. As a result, we will be offering the following new trading pairs and services:

Litecoin is a fork of the original Bitcoin network and aims to grow the use of cryptocurrency for daily transactions, similar to the payment methods of the traditional banking system (e.g., cash, debit, and credit cards). Litecoin uses a different mining algorithm than Bitcoin in an effort to further decentralize participation, and continues to be on the leading edge of efforts to increase adoption of cryptocurrency for payments.

Gemini is the world’s most regulated cryptocurrency exchange and custodian, held to the highest standards of banking compliance and fiduciary obligations, and overseen by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS). The addition of Litecoin further solidifies Gemini’s standing as the go-to exchange for retail and institutional investors alike. Gemini continues to grow with a “security-first” approach and we have worked closely with the NYSDFS to gain approval for Litecoin trading and custody services. We are excited to provide our customers with a safe, secure, and compliant method to buy, sell, and store these digital assets. Customers leveraging Gemini’s API functionality can see our updated symbol list here.

We also had planned to announce support for Bitcoin Cash (BCH) today as well. However, there has been much uncertainty lately within the Bitcoin Cash community about one or more possible hard forks arriving in mid-November. Some of those forks lack the replay protection feature that would be required for Gemini to safely support Bitcoin Cash. Because of this situation, we are delaying our launch of Bitcoin Cash deposits, withdrawals, and trading until late November, after the forks have passed and we can evaluate the health of the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem. Until then, you may see some “coming soon” pages for Bitcoin Cash deposits, withdrawals, and trading on our website and APIs.

We remain certain that for cryptocurrency to realize its tremendous potential it is crucial to provide a safe and regulated environment for both innovation and consumer protection, and we are proud to work closely with both the market and regulators as we move towards the future of money.

Onward and Upward,

Eric Winer, VP of Engineering