Gemini’s affiliate Gemini Olympus secured a CFTC Derivatives Clearing Organization license, giving the exchange full in-house control over clearing and settlement as it builds toward prediction markets and crypto perpetuals.
Posted May 1, 2026 at 5:59 am EST.
Gemini’s affiliate Gemini Olympus, LLC received a Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) license from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on April 29, the company announced Thursday. Gemini shares (GEMI) jumped roughly 8% on the news.
The license allows Olympus to act as a central counterparty for regulated derivatives — managing clearing, settlement, margining, and collateral in-house rather than routing trades through outside firms like QC Clearing LLC, which Gemini had previously relied on. Cameron Winklevoss called it “a major milestone in our marketplace expansion” and a building block for Gemini’s financial services super app.
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The DCO approval follows the December 2025 Designated Contract Market (DCM) license granted to affiliate Gemini Titan, which enabled the launch of Gemini’s prediction marketplace. With both licenses in place, Gemini now controls the full trade lifecycle — from listing to settlement — inside a single regulated structure. The company said Gemini Titan will explore expanding into crypto futures, options, and perpetual contracts for U.S. customers. A futures commission merchant (FCM) license is the remaining piece of the full CFTC stack, and The Block reported that Gemini is actively pursuing it.
The approval puts Gemini in a small group of crypto-native firms holding both a DCM and a DCO. Bitnomial holds the same combination, and Kraken’s parent company Payward agreed earlier this month to acquire it — the first firm to hold the full CFTC stack, including an FCM.
The timing matters. As Unchained reported this week, Polymarket is seeking CFTC approval to reopen its main exchange to U.S. traders. Hyperliquid is testing HIP-4, a zero-fee prediction market product. And Kalshi is expanding into perpetual futures under the name Timeless. The prediction market sector saw trading volume surge more than 300% in 2025 to $63.5 billion.
Gemini has been pivoting hard toward the U.S. to compete in that market.
Earlier this year, it announced “Gemini 2.0,” exiting the UK, EU, and Australia and cutting roughly 25% of international staff. The company went public via Nasdaq IPO in September 2025, with shares popping 14% on debut before falling roughly 90% from that high, weighed down by nearly $600 million in 2025 losses and investor scrutiny over its transition away from spot crypto. Thursday’s approval was one of the first meaningful catalysts since the IPO.
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