Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange co-founded by the Winklevoss twins of Facebook fame, plans to hire 100 people at its Seattle-area hub.
The New York-based company announced growth plans on Wednesday amid a turbulent week for the crypto industry and after Gemini cut its workforce earlier this year.
The broader crypto market has recently been rocked by a flurry of negative headlines. On Tuesday, major crypto exchange FTX agreed to sell its non-US operations to rival Binance to avert a liquidity crunch, leaving investors jittery over general volatility in the industry. Following the announcement, Bitcoin plunged to less than $18,000, a two-year low, while Ethereum fell more than 18%.
“I still think Bitcoin will be $500,000 per coin within the decade,” Gemini co-founder and president Cameron Winklevoss told GeekWire.
Cameron and his twin brother, Tyler, sued Facebook (now Meta) founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 after claiming he stole their idea for the social networking site.
The twins launched Gemini in 2015, offering a way for consumers to buy, sell and store crypto. The company was valued at more than $7 billion after raising $400 million in November 2021.
In June, the company announced it was cutting 10% of its workforce. At the time, it cited “turbulent market conditions that are likely to persist over time.” A month later, in July, Gemini laid off another 7% of its workforce, or about 68 employees, TechCrunch reported.
Asked why Gemini is hiring new employees while the market is changing, Winklevoss said the company still has its operating plans and roadmap, and is hiring as it continues to “grow and execute.”
Despite the fall in the price of crypto, the underlying fundamentals of the technology and the movement behind it have not changed, Winklevoss said. He added that there are also macro headwinds such as inflation that drag down the broader market.
The crypto exchange also bets heavily on the metaverse, and competes against Meta. Winklevoss said the company is still building out features that make up an infrastructure layer to the metaverse and is seeing continued demand.
Gemini aims to hire about 100 new employees in the Seattle area for roles ranging from product to engineering. The company’s office in downtown Bellevue, Washington, currently employs 28 workers.
The crypto exchange has already tapped a number of tech vets from Seattle to bolster its leadership, including former Amazon Web Services CEO Pravjit Tiwana, its chief technology officer; former AWS engineer Jorge Peixoto Vasquez, its vice president of engineering; and former Walmart CEO Ajay Jaganathan, vice president of talent and people operations.
Gemini is currently the eleventh largest crypto exchange platform by volume. It is headquartered in New York and operates in more than 65 countries.
