Is Gemini safe? Licences, account freezes and incidents
Is Gemini safe?
Gemini has 1 licence found in the register at dfs.ny.gov, issued by the NYDFS. Its terms let it freeze, suspend or close an account, with immediate effect. Its gambling clause is not verified. 2 primary-source incidents are recorded, dated 2024-02-28 and 2025-01-13.
Documents last checked Reviewed by CryptoGuardz Register Desk, editorial desk
Disclosure: CryptoGuardz has no commercial relationship with Gemini and earns nothing if you open an account there. Every statement below is read from a document Gemini publishes or from a public register, and each carries the date it was read. Corrections go to the corrections page.
Gemini review: the documents
This is a review of the documents Gemini publishes and of the registers that should list it, not a test of the platform: no account was funded and no withdrawal was run. The binding terms name Gemini Trust Company, LLC as the company you contract with, in New York, United States (limited purpose trust company). The record quotes 6 clauses across 5 topics, read 2026-10-08, from 11 sources. Gemini has 1 licence found in the register at dfs.ny.gov, issued by the NYDFS. 2 further licences it claims were not confirmed in any register. No proof of reserves is published. The terms carry a clause on what happens to customer assets if the company fails, quoted below. Its gambling clause is not verified. 6 points could not be verified and are listed below.
Is my crypto safe on Gemini?
Gemini is a custodial exchange: coins on the account are held by the exchange, not by a key you control. What protects them is what the binding terms say about holding customer assets and about the company failing. One clause on holding customer assets is quoted below.
Except for Digital Assets held in your segregated Custody Account, Gemini holds your Digital Assets in an omnibus Digital Asset Account.gemini.com
Insolvency and bankruptcy language in the terms, verbatim:
Digital Assets held on your behalf and reflected in the Digital Asset Account and Custody Account of your Gemini Account are not treated as general assets of Gemini.gemini.com
Can Gemini freeze my account?
Yes, by its terms. The 2 clauses are quoted as written, followed by the clause on suspending withdrawals. Grounds named in the text: its own discretion, with no reason required, a legal, regulatory or court requirement and a suspected breach of the terms or the law.
You agree and understand that we have the right to immediately (i) suspend your account and all accounts beneficially owned by you and any members of your household or for which you are a representative or authorized signatory and, in the case of entities, any affiliates (each, a “Related Account”), (ii) freeze/lock the funds and assets in all such accounts, and (iii) suspend your access to Gemini, until a determination has been made, if we suspect, in our sole discretion, you and/or any such accounts to be in violation of:gemini.com
You agree and understand that we have the right to terminate your access to the Gemini Platform and any account at any time and for any reason, including for violation of this User Agreement or applicable law, and that if we do so, your rights and obligations under this User Agreement will continue.gemini.com
In certain situations, Digital Asset withdrawals may be delayed in connection with Downtime, the congestion or disruption of a Digital Asset Network, or for regulatory or administrative purposes.gemini.com
The gambling clause is not verified. The full reading is in section 10 of the review.
Has Gemini been hacked or fined?
2 matters are recorded, each from the primary source linked beside it. The descriptions are the record’s, with the date. Other events may exist that no primary source in this collection confirms, so this list is not proof that there are no others.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced that the US District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a consent order against Gemini Trust Company LLC, ordering it to pay $5 million. The release states: "The order includes a permanent injunction, and finds Gemini violated the CEA and made materially false or misleading statements or omissions to the Commission." On 27 May 2026 the CFTC announced it had joined Gemini in a motion asking the court to vacate the consent order "as to the prospective provision" (CFTC Press Release 9236-26).
The New York State Department of Financial Services announced that "Gemini Trust Company, LLC has committed to return at least $1.1 billion to Gemini Earn Program customers through the Genesis Global Capital, LLC (GGC) bankruptcy proceeding." The release adds: "Gemini will also pay a $37 million fine to DFS for significant failures that threatened the safety and soundness of the company." and "Despite Gemini's public statements to the contrary, Gemini did not fully vet or sufficiently monitor GGC throughout the life of Earn".
Gemini support and scams
The official domain in the record is gemini.com. Type it yourself rather than following a link from an ad, a search result or a message, and reach support only from inside the account you signed in to there.
Real support never asks for a seed phrase or for remote access to your device. An exchange account is opened with a login, not a recovery phrase, so a request for one is a request for a wallet you hold elsewhere. A request to install a screen-sharing or remote-desktop app hands the caller your signed-in session. Either one ends the conversation.
If money has already gone, the next message offering to get it back is the commonest second loss. The FBI, the FTC, the CFTC and the UK FCA have each published warnings about it, quoted on crypto scam recovery: what is real.
What we could not verify
The gaps in this record, as the record states them. A point listed here was looked for and not confirmed; it is neither a finding for Gemini nor against it.
- The Dispute Resolution, governing law and arbitration sections of both Gemini agreements. They did not appear in the retrieved text after two passes, so no arbitration or jurisdiction clause is recorded.
- Whether either agreement contains a gambling clause. The retrieved text contained none of gambling, gaming, lottery, casino, betting, wager or sweepstakes, but the retrieved text is incomplete.
- The FinCEN MSB registration. msb.fincen.gov is disallowed by robots.txt to the retrieval tool.
- State money transmitter licences. No state register was read.
- Any EU or UK authorisation. The ESMA CASP register file was served truncated at 81,166 characters (ending at the DEBLOCK SAS row) on two attempts, so absence from it cannot be asserted. The FCA register returned a JavaScript error page on two attempts.
- A company number for Gemini Trust Company, LLC or Gemini Moonbase, LLC. Neither agreement gives one.