How to buy bitcoin on Gemini: US steps and EU alternatives

If you live in the EU, you can’t buy bitcoin on Gemini: it closed all UK, EEA and Australian accounts on 6 April 2026 and now serves the US and Singapore. EU readers should use a MiCA-licensed exchange instead; our guides explain how to buy bitcoin on Kraken and how to buy bitcoin on Coinbase.

For readers in the US, this guide explains how to buy bitcoin on Gemini, what it costs and where to keep it. We checked Gemini’s support pages, its how-to-buy page, its US fee schedule dated 1 September 2026, its SEC filings, its public API and ESMA’s MiCA register on 23 October 2026. We haven’t used a Gemini account ourselves, so the steps are general rather than screen by screen.

Can you buy bitcoin on Gemini in Europe?

No. Gemini closed every UK, EEA and Australian account effective 6 April 2026, after a withdrawal-only period that began on 5 March 2026; Gemini continues to serve the US and Singapore. It announced the exit in February 2026, together with up to 200 job cuts, and had already left the Netherlands in November 2023.

ESMA’s interim register still lists a MiCA authorisation for Gemini Intergalactic EU Ltd, granted by Malta’s MFSA in August 2025. That doesn’t mean you can use it: Gemini closed all EEA customer accounts, so the licence isn’t in use for retail clients. Treat any page that still sends EU readers to Gemini as out of date.

MiCA-licensed alternatives for EU readers

These exchanges are licensed under MiCA and serve the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Ireland:

Is Gemini a good exchange for US readers?

Gemini is a regulated cryptocurrency exchange in the US, but an expensive crypto exchange for small buys of bitcoin and other crypto. Gemini Trust Company is a limited purpose trust company regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services, and Gemini Space Station, Inc. has been listed on Nasdaq (GEMI) since September 2025.

• Upside: NYDFS regulation, offline cold storage, and SOC 1 and SOC 2 examinations of its security controls.
• Catch: higher fees than many rivals at the entry tier, and penalties over its Earn programme.
• Who should look elsewhere: anyone in the EU, the UK or Australia, and US buyers who want low fees on small amounts. Our United States page compares options there.

How to buy bitcoin on Gemini, step by step

Buying bitcoin on Gemini takes six steps, and the same route works if you want to buy crypto other than bitcoin: sign up, verify your identity, link a funding source, choose a one-time or recurring buy, confirm the order, and optionally withdraw to your own wallet. Gemini requires full identity verification before you can trade or withdraw.

Two ways to buy crypto: instant buy or ActiveTrader

Gemini ActiveTrader (sometimes written Gemini Active Trader) is cheaper than an instant buy if you place limit orders, and it is built for the experienced trader. Instant and recurring buys include a spread plus a convenience fee, which Gemini’s annual report says is typically around 1% above the market price. ActiveTrader uses order books with separate maker and taker fees: 0.60% and 1.20% at the entry tier.

Gemini’s App Store listing describes advanced trading features such as trading pair discovery, candlestick charting, order books and depth views, and order types including limit, stop, fill-or-kill, immediate-or-cancel and maker-or-cancel. A maker-or-cancel order only adds liquidity, so it always pays the lower maker fee or is cancelled. Candlestick charting and depth views take time to learn, so if you are new to crypto, place a simple maker order and skip the rest of the advanced trading screen until you understand it.

Trading pairs and the minimum order

Gemini’s public API listed the BTC/USD trading pair as open on 23 October 2026, with a minimum order of 0.00001 BTC, so you can buy a small fraction of a bitcoin. The App Store listing mentions over 300 trading pairs depending on your location and notes that asset availability may vary by region; Gemini’s own disclosures list about 67 tradable digital assets, including its stablecoin, the Gemini dollar (GUSD).

Recurring buys and price alerts

Gemini lets you set up recurring crypto purchases, so you invest consistently without trying to time the market. You can also set custom price alerts on crypto prices for the assets you follow, and receive price alerts and notifications on an Apple Watch. Recurring buys pay the instant-buy pricing, so a fixed monthly amount still carries the spread and convenience fee each time.

Gemini fees on a $100 and $1,000 bitcoin buy

A $1,000 bitcoin buy on Gemini costs $6.00 as an ActiveTrader limit order or $12.00 as a market order; an instant buy of $100 costs around $1.00 above the market price. Gemini funds accounts in US dollars or Singapore dollars only, so the examples are in dollars.

ActiveTrader fees fall with 30-day volume: 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker from $10,000, and 0.25% and 0.50% from $25,000. For EU readers, the same purchase at a licensed exchange costs €0.80 on €100 and €8.00 on €1,000 with a Kraken Pro market order, or €0.25 and €2.50 at Bitvavo. Our Gemini fees page lists the full US schedule.

Withdrawing bitcoin from Gemini

To withdraw bitcoin, you need a fully verified account. Enter your wallet address, check the network fee, which changes with blockchain traffic, and send a small test amount first. To sell bitcoin for dollars instead, sell in the app and withdraw to your linked bank account.

The EU travel rule doesn’t govern a US account, but if you later move bitcoin to an EU exchange, that exchange must collect sender details, and above €1,000 from your own wallet it must check the wallet is yours.

Where to store your bitcoin

Gemini keeps customer crypto in offline cold storage with geographically distributed hardware security modules and multi-party computation, and Gemini Trust acts as a NYDFS-regulated qualified custodian for customers who want Gemini to store digital assets for them. Its App Store listing cites third party security assessments, including SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 and annual penetration testing. We found no proof-of-reserves attestation on its official pages.

Custody always means trusting a company with access to your coins, and your own account security matters as much as Gemini’s: use a unique password and two-factor authentication, and keep recovery codes safe so you don’t lose access to your account. To store cryptocurrency yourself, use self-custody: a wallet where only you hold the private keys, which keeps your bitcoin secure as long as you protect them. A hardware wallet keeps them offline. Compare the options in our guide to wallet types, and never share your recovery phrase.

Gemini Earn: what happened

Gemini Earn is the main reason to read Gemini’s record before you buy. Genesis, the lending partner behind Earn, froze withdrawals in November 2022 after FTX collapsed, locking Earn users’ assets until they were returned in kind in May and June 2024, about $2.2 billion according to Gemini’s annual report. The NYDFS imposed a $37m penalty plus a $40m contribution to Earn users, and the SEC dismissed its Earn lawsuit in January 2026.

Common mistakes when buying bitcoin on Gemini

• Trying to open an account from the EU or UK. Gemini no longer serves either.
• Trusting outdated listings. Gemini’s App Store text still says you can buy with British pounds or other supported fiat currency, months after UK accounts closed.
• Using instant buy for large amounts. About 1% plus spread costs more than an ActiveTrader maker order.
• Paying by debit card. 3.49% is a high price for convenience.
• Treating crypto as a low-risk investment. It is a high-risk investment: you can lose all the money you put in, so keep it a small part of your cryptocurrency portfolio and wider savings.
• Confusing it with Google Gemini. Download the exchange’s app from the official store page.

Taxes on bitcoin

Buying bitcoin is not taxed in itself, but selling can be. In the US, crypto sales can trigger tax; check IRS guidance or a tax adviser. If you move to the EU: in the Netherlands crypto counts towards box 3 on 1 January (for 2026, a 6.00% notional return taxed at 36% above €59,357 per person); in Germany, crypto held for more than a year can be sold tax-free, while gains within a year are taxed at your income-tax rate once your private-sale gains reach €1,000 in a year.