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Gemini shoots for Nasdaq: Twins test Wall Street’s appetite

PLUS: The Winklevoss twins take their exchange public while Coinbase launches a Mag7 + crypto futures product, Solana speeds up finality, and Justin Sun stirs WLFI again.

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Cryptopolitan News
September 03, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

🏦 Gemini shoots for Nasdaq, twins bet on Wall Street

The Winklevoss twins are giving Wall Street another crypto IPO to chew on.

Gemini has filed to list on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, aiming to trade under the ticker GEMI. The plan: sell just over 16.6 million shares at $17 to $19 a piece. That’s about $300 million if everything lines up.

There’s also a cushion built in. If demand runs hot, underwriters can grab roughly 2.5 million extra shares. Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are leading the deal, with Morgan Stanley and a handful of others in the mix.

For context, this would make Gemini the third U.S. exchange to go public after Coinbase and Bullish. Coinbase joined the S&P 500 this year. Bullish went live months ago without much fanfare.

Why this is a gamble

IPOs are back on Wall Street after a long drought. Companies from different sectors have been jumping in, and most of them have had solid debuts. That’s the window the Winklevoss twins are trying to slip through.

It’s also a credibility play. Gemini has long pushed the “regulated, compliant” angle. Going public means letting the SEC, investors, and analysts pick through every line of its books. No hiding.

Remember who we’re talking about

The twins first popped into the spotlight in their fight with Mark Zuckerberg over Facebook. Their settlement check became their ticket into Bitcoin in the early 2010s, when it was still dirt cheap. That gamble turned them into billionaires and funded Gemini.

Since then, they’ve tried to build Gemini as the button-down exchange. No meme coins, no offshore loopholes. That’s their brand. Listing on Nasdaq fits that storyline, at least on paper

What’s next

The SEC still has to make the filing effective. Until then, it’s just ink on paper. Market conditions will decide the price.

👉 The bigger question: will investors treat GEMI as a stock tied to crypto’s long-term future… or just another way to punt on Bitcoin?

⚖️ Takeaway: The Winklevoss twins aren’t just selling shares. They’re betting that Wall Street is finally ready to treat a crypto exchange like a real financial institution.

 📊 Market Watch

Coinbase is taking a swing at Wall Street with something no U.S. exchange has done before: a futures contract that blends the “Magnificent 7” tech giants with Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.

They’re calling it the Mag7 + Crypto Equity Index Futures. Here’s the breakdown:

  • 10 components, equal weight (10% each):
    Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta, Tesla, Coinbase, iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA).

  • Cash-settled: 1 contract = $1 × index price. If the index is $3,000, the contract is worth $3,000.

  • Rebalanced quarterly to keep each component at 10%.

Why it matters

  • Bridge play: This is the first U.S.-listed product tying together Big Tech + Crypto in one trade.

  • Diversification hook: No overweight to Nvidia or Bitcoin, everything is capped.

  • Risk management angle: Lets funds hedge or gain exposure across two of the most volatile sectors without juggling multiple products.

Coinbase has also slipped its own stock (COIN) into the mix, alongside BlackRock’s ETFs for BTC and ETH. It’s a branding move to keep Coinbase at the center of the “tech-meets-crypto” trade.

Right now, the futures are only live via partner platforms, but Coinbase says retail access is coming “soon.”

👉 Translation: if you believe tech and crypto will move together, this product is basically a one-click bet on that thesis.

 👩‍💻 Our tech team is talking about this

Solana’s “Alpenglow” upgrade gets 98% approval

The Solana community has overwhelmingly voted in favor of the Alpenglow upgrade the most ambitious protocol shift in the network’s history.

  • 98.27% voted “Yes”, with 52% of staked SOL participating.

  • Votor will cut transaction finality from ~12 seconds to 150 milliseconds.

  • Rotor (rolling out later) will slim down validator communications, boosting efficiency for DeFi and gaming apps.

👉 What it means: Alpenglow essentially rebuilds how Solana reaches consensus. Votor replaces the old voting system with near-instant confirmations, while Rotor reduces the data load between validators. Together, they aim to make Solana fast enough for real-time apps like trading or gaming, while keeping transaction costs low.

Top investors to follow on X

Here are the top picks:

  1. @naval (Naval Ravikant) – AngelList co-founder, early investor in Twitter, Uber, and crypto startups. Posts on wealth, startups, and life philosophy.

  2. @fredwilson (Fred Wilson) – Union Square Ventures partner, one of the earliest backers of Coinbase. Straightforward takes on markets and venture.

  3. @APompliano (Anthony Pompliano) – Investor and newsletter writer. Focused on Bitcoin, macro moves, and connecting crypto with traditional finance.

  4. @cdixon (Chris Dixon) – a16z crypto lead. Shares deep essays and quick takes on the future of Web3, AI, and platforms.

  5. @balajis (Balaji Srinivasan) – Former Coinbase CTO, angel investor, and author of The Network State. Known for bold macro predictions.

  6. @hosseeb (Haseeb Qureshi) – Dragonfly Capital GP. Posts threads breaking down crypto economics, narratives, and what VCs are really funding.

  7. @Arrington (Michael Arrington) – TechCrunch founder turned crypto investor with Arrington Capital. Strong opinions on the intersection of tech and finance. 

Headline picks: Your mid-week roundup

Read The Middle GIF

🎭 Culture corner:

Justin Sun just moved $1M worth of WLFI to his own HTX exchange and the crypto gallery immediately reached for the popcorn.

  • Sun still sits on 600M+ unlocked WLFI, part of the 3B allocation he snagged for a cool $75M.

  • HTX is now dangling 20% APY on WLFI deposits (because nothing says “trust us” like double-digit yields).

  • Whispers say Sun isn’t dumping (yet), he might just park tokens as collateral instead.

Why the fuss?
Because whenever Justin Sun moves tokens, markets assume he’s about to play 4D chess. And with WLFI barely holding at $0.21, traders are watching his wallets like hawks.

For now, WLFI volumes are fading and whales are taking only tiny profits. One even sold just $491K after the pump. Compared to meme coin frenzies of old, this is… tame. WLFI has also announced a burn of $45M worth of tokens in order to stabilise price, in less than 72 hours of the listing.

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