Gemini Trust Co exchange has received the approval from the State of New York to start trading privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash. Following the approval, Gemini Trust Co exchange, which was founded by internet entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, will be the first Zcash exchange in the world. Zcash currently has a market valuation of over $1 billion.
Gemini is a regulated exchange and serves customers in several US states. It also has customers in the U.K, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Apart from being approved to trade and hold Zcash, the New York Department of Financial Services has approved Gemini for trading in Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. Bitcoin Cash has a market value of $25 billion while Litecoin has a market value of $8.3 billion. However, details about the two currencies’ status on the exchange are scarce.
Gemini’s close working relationship with NYSDFS
In a letter, Cameron Winklevoss, the president of Gemini said that the successful addition of new products came as a result of the close working relationship between the exchange and the NYDFS. Cameron notes that following the approval, NYSDFS is currently the first exchange in the world to supervise Zcash.
The Winklevosses said that Zcash is preferred among investors because it has a privacy-protecting feature which allows counterparties to carry out trade without having to recognize each other or having information about each other. The technology, which is called zk-snarks can be incorporated into any number of blockchains and offers the same privacy and certainty as the bitcoin blockchain. “zk” means “zero-knowledge.”
Because of the privacy-protecting feature, this cryptocurency is suited for people who are sensitive to protecting their privacy as well as those in oppressed countries. This way, it has attracted the attention of both detractors and supporters.
Apart from Zcash having a $32.4 million daily trading volume, the zk-snark technology is currently being used in several used in several open-source projects like Quorum, which was developed by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)
To offer the much touted privacy, Zcash makes use of both shielded addresses, which offer full control, and unshielded addresses, which offer a lower degree of protection. At its launch, Gemini will facilitate deposits from both shielded and unshielded addresses.
