Gemini review: fees, safety and why it left Europe

Gemini is no longer an option for anyone living in the EU: it closed all UK, EEA and Australian accounts on 6 April 2026. Our verdict for EU residents is “wrong way”, simply because you can’t use it; for US readers it remains a regulated but expensive exchange with a difficult history.

This Gemini review covers Gemini the cryptocurrency exchange, not Google’s AI. We checked Gemini’s support pages, its US fee schedule dated 1 September 2026, its SEC filings and the ESMA MiCA register on 23 October 2026. We haven’t used Gemini ourselves, so everything here comes from those documents.

Gemini review at a glance

Gemini is a US crypto exchange that stopped serving Europe in April 2026, charges 0.60% maker and 1.20% taker at its entry tier, and paid regulatory penalties over its Earn programme. The table shows where it stands for a reader in Europe and for a reader in the US.

	For EU residents	For US residents
Can you open an account?	No (closed 6 April 2026)	Yes
Licence	Maltese MiCA authorisation still listed, but not used for retail clients	NYDFS trust company; CFTC contract market for predictions
Spot trading fees (entry tier)	Not applicable	0.60% maker, 1.20% taker
Instant buy	Not applicable	Spread plus a fee of around 1%
Euro deposits	Not available	Not applicable (USD)
Supported assets	Not applicable	65+
Track record	Earn freeze 2022; NYDFS and CFTC penalties	Same

The main upside for US users is a regulated custodian with cold storage and detailed public filings. The main catch is cost: at the entry tier a $1,000 market order costs $12.00.

Can you use Gemini in Europe? No, not since April 2026

No. Gemini closed all UK, EEA and Australian accounts effective 6 April 2026, after a withdrawal-only period that started on 5 March 2026. It continues to operate in the US and Singapore.

Gemini announced the exit in February 2026, covering the UK, the EU, other European markets and Australia, together with up to 200 job cuts, about a quarter of its staff. It had already stopped serving the Netherlands on 17 November 2023, citing requirements of De Nederlandsche Bank.

What about Gemini’s MiCA licence?

At first glance, the ESMA register suggests Gemini is still licensed in the EU. The interim register lists a MiCA authorisation for Gemini Intergalactic EU Ltd (C110029), granted by the Malta Financial Services Authority in August 2025, without an end date. That doesn’t mean you can use Gemini: the company closed every EEA customer account, so the licence isn’t in use for retail clients.

We couldn’t confirm whether Gemini has surrendered that authorisation or its Maltese MiFID licence since the exit. Check the ESMA register yourself if it matters to you, and treat any site that still sends EU readers to Gemini as out of date.

Had a Gemini account in Europe? What to do now

If you had a Gemini account in the EU or the UK, it has been closed since 6 April 2026, and any remaining questions about balances go through Gemini’s help centre. Before the closure, Gemini partnered with eToro to help UK, EU and Australian customers move their assets.

These MiCA-licensed exchanges serve EU residents today:

• Bitvavo: licensed by the Dutch AFM, 0.15% maker and 0.25% taker, with free iDEAL, Bancontact and SEPA deposits. See our Bitvavo review.
• Kraken: licensed through the Central Bank of Ireland, with an app and Kraken Pro, plus regulated derivatives through a CySEC-licensed company. See our Kraken review.
• Coinbase: licensed in Luxembourg and listed in the US, with the closest feel to Gemini as a publicly listed US-born exchange. See our Coinbase review.
• Bitpanda: based in Vienna, with MiCA licences from Austria’s FMA and Germany’s BaFin, and stocks and ETFs in the same app. See our Bitpanda review.

What is Gemini, the cryptocurrency exchange?

Gemini is a US crypto exchange and custodian founded in 2014 by the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and based in New York. The listed company, Gemini Space Station, Inc., joined Nasdaq under the ticker GEMI in September 2025.

At 31 December 2025, Gemini reported about 601,000 monthly transacting users and $15.9 billion of assets on the platform. Its main features for US users:

• a simple app for instant and recurring buys;
• the ActiveTrader platform, an order book allowing users to place limit orders, with API access for advanced traders;
• perpetual futures, margin and staking;
• a US credit card;
• prediction markets through Gemini Titan, a CFTC-designated contract market;
• the Gemini Dollar (GUSD), a US dollar-backed stablecoin.

Gemini exchange versus Google Gemini

Gemini the exchange has no link to Google Gemini, the AI assistant from Google. Many Google search results for “Gemini review” mix the two, so check that the answers you read are about crypto, not about AI tools and how they handle your data.

If you came here looking for a review of Google Gemini, the AI model, this page won’t help: we only cover the crypto exchange. If you want crypto results, adding “exchange” or “crypto” to your Google search filters out most of the AI pages.

Gemini trading fees: expensive at small sizes

Gemini’s fees are high for small and medium orders: the ActiveTrader entry tier is 0.60% maker and 1.20% taker, and instant buys add a spread plus a variable fee. Fees fall as trading volume increases, but most buyers never reach the cheaper tiers.

These are the current US schedules; Gemini’s former EEA fee schedules no longer apply.

ActiveTrader tier (30-day volume)	Maker fee	Taker fee
Entry tier	0.60%	1.20%
From $10,000	0.40%	0.80%
From $25,000	0.25%	0.50%
Top tier ($250 million)	0%	0.02%

Other costs on the US schedule:

Cost	Fee
Instant and recurring buys	Spread in the quote plus a variable fee shown before you confirm; Gemini’s annual report says the convenience fee is typically around 1% above the market price
Debit card purchase (US)	3.49%
PayPal	2.50%
Crypto withdrawal fees	Dynamic network transaction fee, shown before you confirm
Perpetual futures (lowest tier)	0.02% maker, 0.07% taker

Worked example: $100 and $1,000 on Gemini

Here is what typical US orders for bitcoin cost with the published fees, with a euro comparison for readers in Europe.

Order	Cost on Gemini
$100 instant buy	Around $1.00 above the market price (Gemini’s typical convenience fee); the exact fee is shown before you confirm
$100 paid by debit card	$3.49 debit card fee (3.49%)
$1,000 ActiveTrader market order (taker 1.20%)	$12.00
$1,000 ActiveTrader limit order (maker 0.60%)	$6.00

For comparison, a €1,000 market order on Bitvavo costs €2.50 (0.25%), and on the Crypto.com Exchange €5.00 (0.50%). Gemini’s own ActiveTrader schedule calls for $25,000 of monthly volume before its taker fee drops to 0.50%.

Gemini’s withdrawal fees follow the blockchain network fee, so they change with network traffic. Withdrawing bitcoin when the network is busy costs more than at quiet times, and the fee is shown before you confirm.

Is Gemini safe? Security, custody and sensitive data

Gemini is regulated in New York and uses offline cold storage, but its track record includes the Earn freeze and several data incidents at third parties, so judge its security on both. For EU residents it isn’t available at all. Gemini built its brand on regulatory compliance in New York; the Earn episode showed the limits of that.

Gemini custody and account protection

• Regulation: Gemini Trust Company, LLC is a limited purpose trust company regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) and acts as a qualified custodian.
• Cold storage: custody uses offline cold storage, geographically distributed hardware security modules (HSMs) and multi-party computation (MPC).
• Audits: Gemini has completed SOC 1 and SOC 2 examinations, which review its internal controls.
• Proof of reserves: we found no proof-of-reserves attestation on Gemini’s official pages.
• Identity checks: full identity verification is required to trade and to withdraw crypto or fiat.

Data security incidents

Gemini’s 10-K lists two incidents involving sensitive data at other companies. In 2022, data breaches at third-party vendors exposed some users’ email addresses and phone numbers. In 2024, a breach at a service provider of one of Gemini’s ACH banking partners affected about 15,000 users.

Leaked email addresses are often used for phishing. Whatever exchange you use, pick a strong, secure password, never give a login code to someone who contacts you, and type the exchange’s web address yourself.

Gemini Earn, Genesis and the regulatory record

Gemini’s biggest problem was Earn: Genesis, its lending partner, froze withdrawals in November 2022 after the FTX collapse, and Earn users waited until May and June 2024 to get their assets back in kind. Gemini’s annual report puts the recovery at about $2.2 billion.

Year	What happened
2022	Genesis froze withdrawals, locking Gemini Earn users’ assets.
2023	Gemini stopped serving the Netherlands from 17 November 2023.
2024	NYDFS consent order over Earn: a $37 million civil penalty plus a $40 million contribution to Earn users. A June 2024 settlement with the New York Attorney General required a further distribution of about $50 million.
2025	Gemini settled a 2022 CFTC lawsuit over misleading statements to CFTC staff with a $5 million penalty (January 2025). On 27 May 2026 Gemini and the CFTC jointly moved to vacate the consent order.
2026	The SEC dismissed its January 2023 lawsuit over Gemini Earn on 28 January 2026, without a monetary settlement.
2026	A securities class action over the IPO was filed in March. In April the New York Attorney General sued Gemini Titan, alleging Gemini Predictions operated unlicensed gambling and sports wagering in New York.
2026	Exit from the UK, EU and Australia; accounts closed on 6 April.

Past performance on regulation is no promise of future results either way, but this record is why we score Gemini’s protection at 3 out of 10 for EU readers: no usable EU licence and a history of penalties.

Supported assets: what you can trade on Gemini

Gemini lists 65+ supported assets for US customers, according to its digital asset disclosures, with USD and SGD as fiat currencies. That is a much smaller range than many exchanges offer, focused on major assets such as bitcoin and ether.

• Spot crypto: 65+ digital assets.
• Staking: earn crypto rewards on selected assets.
• Perpetual futures and margin: leveraged products. Most retail traders lose money with leverage, and you can lose your whole stake quickly.
• Prediction markets: through Gemini Titan, which the New York Attorney General sued in April 2026.

EU residents can use none of these, including derivatives. Features like the credit card and prediction markets are US products in any case.

The Gemini Dollar (GUSD)

The Gemini Dollar (GUSD) is a US dollar-backed stablecoin that Gemini mints on the Ethereum blockchain. Gemini says each GUSD is backed by cash or cash equivalents, that GUSD has been regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services since 2018, and that customers can redeem 1 GUSD for $1 on Gemini. Converting US dollars to GUSD is free in the Gemini app, according to Gemini.

Gemini no longer serves EU residents, so for readers in Europe GUSD is a US product.

Gemini app and ActiveTrader

Gemini has two levels: a simple app for instant and recurring buys, and the ActiveTrader platform, Gemini’s advanced trading tools for experienced traders who want an order book, limit orders and lower fees. The simple app is the more expensive one, because instant buys include a spread plus a fee.

Gemini users in the US who do regular crypto trading should use ActiveTrader limit orders where they can: they pay the maker fee rather than the instant-buy markup. Support runs through a help centre and a web request form.

Who Gemini is for, and who should look elsewhere

Gemini suits US residents who value a NYDFS-regulated custodian, use the Gemini credit card or GUSD, or trade enough volume to reach lower fee tiers. Everyone in the EU, the UK and Australia should look elsewhere, because Gemini no longer serves them.

Look elsewhere if you:

• live in the EU, the UK or Australia;
• buy small amounts and want low fees;
• want a wide choice of altcoins;
• want an exchange without regulatory penalties in its recent past.

US readers can compare options on our page on crypto exchanges in the United States.

Gemini alternatives for EU residents

For readers in Europe, the realistic Gemini alternatives are MiCA-licensed exchanges that serve your country: Bitvavo for low euro fees, Kraken for a broad product range, and Coinbase for a listed, US-born provider. All three are covered in our reviews, linked in the section “Had a Gemini account in Europe?” above.

If you followed Gemini through our comparison pages, our Crypto.com vs Gemini comparison shows how a MiCA-licensed app compares. For Gemini’s full US price list, see our Gemini fees page.

How we checked this Gemini review

We read Gemini’s support article on the UK, EU and Australia closures, its ActiveTrader fee schedule dated 1 September 2026, its Gemini Dollar page, its 10-K for 2025 and its filings for 2026, and the ESMA MiCA register, on 23 October 2026. Scores reflect what an EU resident can actually use, following our methodology.