Winklevoss twins’ bitcoin exchange Gemini sees trading surge

A bitcoin exchange set up by the Winklevoss twins has seen its trading volumes surge rapidly, according to tracker site bitcoinity.org, but the new company still lags behind the major players in the sector.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss launched the exchange on October 8 and have dubbed it the “Nasdaq of bitcoin.”

It has completed 11,176 trades in the last three weeks, according to bitcoinity.org. From 31 trades on its first day, it managed to complete over 2 thousand during last Friday’s session.

Despite the rapid increase in trading volume Gemini remains trumped by other exchanges. During the same period, other top ranking exchanges such as bitstamp completed 686,712 trades and bitfinex completed 594,747 trades. The Chinese exchange OKCoin traded over 1 million bitcoins on Friday, according to the tracker website.

However, according to bitcointy.org, Gemini ranks number 11 in a list of top 21 Bitcoin exchanges.

The bitcoin exchanges which rank better than Gemini include thebitfinex, bitstamp, coinbase, bit-x and itbit.

Gemini, is the long-awaited New York-based bitcoin exchange founded by the twins. There are currently many bitcoin exchanges available on the market which allow customers to convert physical money into bitcoins.

Michael Parsons, a banking management consultant and bitcoin adviser, told CNBC via email explain that it is not an easy process to launch an exchange. Gaining regulatory approval is a huge hurdle, he said.

“To launch an exchange you require a bank account and most banks will not deal with an unregulated entity. The exchange has to be regulated beforehand. Once you have been regulated only then will banks deal with bitcoin.” said Parsons.