Gemini Leans on FINRA Broker-Dealer Status to Push Into US Equities

Gemini has begun offering commission-free trading in thousands of US exchange-listed stocks, relying on an upgraded broker-dealer registration with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to route customer orders through a third-party clearing arrangement rather than building its own securities infrastructure from scratch.

According to Gemini’s announcement on Tuesday, eligible customers in most US states can now buy and sell equities with zero commissions directly through the exchange’s app. The service is not yet live in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas, Puerto Rico, Washington DC or Guam, reflecting the patchwork of state-level securities and money-transmission rules that continue to shape how crypto firms roll out adjacent financial products in the United States.

Regulated plumbing behind the launch

Gemini said it has updated its FINRA broker-dealer registration to operate as an introducing broker, a status that permits the firm to introduce customer stock orders while Apex Clearing Corporation executes, clears and settles the trades and safeguards customer assets. Nasdaq has been brought on as the exchange’s official provider of real-time market data for the new equities offering.

The reliance on Apex for custody and clearing mirrors a common structure used by fintech brokerages, allowing Gemini to offer securities trading without seeking its own full broker-dealer clearing licence. It also underscores how crypto exchanges expanding into traditional asset classes must plug into existing regulated market infrastructure rather than operate outside it.

Part of a wider diversification drive

The equities launch follows a string of moves by Gemini to diversify away from spot cryptocurrency trading, including expansion into prediction markets, derivatives, artificial intelligence tools, staking, custody services and credit cards. The company secured a Commodity Futures Trading Commission licence in April for its Olympus subsidiary to operate as a Derivatives Clearing Organization, adding to an existing Designated Contract Market licence.

Gemini said those CFTC approvals strengthen its capacity to support crypto spot markets, derivatives and prediction products under a single regulated umbrella. Cameron Winklevoss, Gemini’s co-founder and president, said: “We have over a decade of experience in building financial platforms. We started with crypto and are expanding to stocks so that customers can manage their entire financial lives right from the Gemini app.”

Tyler Winklevoss, the company’s co-founder and chief executive, framed the move as part of a longer-term regulatory strategy: “Crypto was just the beginning. Our goal is to bring many financial products, from crypto to equities to derivatives, under one regulated platform.”

Crowded field, familiar economics

Zero-commission equities trading is now standard across US brokerages following the growth of firms such as Robinhood, which pioneered the model. Platforms offering fee-free trading typically generate revenue through other channels, including payment for order flow, interest on customer cash balances, margin lending and premium subscriptions, a business model that has itself attracted periodic scrutiny from US securities regulators over conflicts of interest.

For Gemini, the equities push signals a bid to be judged less as a crypto exchange and more as a multi-asset regulated platform, at a moment when US policymakers continue to debate the market-structure rules that will govern how digital-asset firms and traditional brokerages interact.

Read more: US Crypto Market Structure Bill Faces August Deadline as Senate Votes Tighten