Gemini Teams With Apex to Expand Prediction Market Footprint

Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini is expanding its prediction markets business in collaboration with Apex FinTech Solutions.

The partnership will see Gemini’s Gemini Titan become the exclusive regulated venue for crypto event contracts distributed through Apex’s futures commission merchant (FCM) to Apex’s brokerage customers, the companies announced Monday (Aug. 24).

“Leveraging more than a decade of experience building and operating a regulated platform for crypto, a new and emergent asset class, we deliberately chose to build our predictions platform in-house,” Tyler Winklevoss, CEO of Gemini, said in a news release. “We believe that predictions are the future of markets, and this strategy allows us to expand our offering and open access to valued partners like Apex as demand for event contracts grows.”

With this partnership, brokerages offering crypto event contracts through Apex’s FCM will use Gemini for execution and clearing. Aside from crypto, Gemini gives Apex the flexibility to collaborate on other contract categories, such as sports, economics, and financial markets, “on a non-exclusive basis,” the release added.

Gemini noted that this partnership builds on a series of recent regulatory approvals. The company’s Gemini Olympus subsidiary obtained a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) derivatives clearing organization (DCO) license in April, “bringing derivatives clearing and settlement for Gemini Titan in-house,” the release said.

And last December, Gemini Titan landed a designated contract market (DCM) license from the CFTC, allowing Gemini to launch predictions trading.

In other prediction markets news, PYMNTS wrote last week about the growing divide between established derivatives exchanges and newer event-contract platforms, illustrated by a clash between executives at a CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee meeting in Washington.

At that meeting, CME Group CEO Terry Duffy said he was “a lot concerned” about the integrity of some prediction markets, arguing that certain contracts could be vulnerable to manipulation or trading by people with inside information.

He also criticized what he called a regulatory imbalance between established exchanges and prediction-market startups, arguing that CME’s proposed contracts related to computing capacity were still under regulatory review while platforms like Kalshi could use the CFTC’s self-certification process to list a range of event contracts.

Kalshi Co-Founder Luana Lopes Lara countered by challenging CME’s record.

“Has CME ever had any issues with any market manipulation, any issues ever in its history?” she asked.

Duffy replied that CME’s regulatory staff has more employees than Kalshi’s entire company. Lara replied that CME might need to “learn a bit about efficiency,” leading Duffy to suggest Kalshi should “learn about credible markets.”