Gemini Space Station may sound like a sci-fi franchise that flopped back in the 80’s, but it’s actually the brainchild of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (yes, those two again).
Today, Gemini became the latest IPO to hit the public market, with a debut priced at $28 per share, which translates into a valuation of $3.3 billion—far above its originally anticipated range. Gemini raised roughly $425 billion by selling 15.2 million shares, according to Barron’s. Shares popped 14.29% this afternoon, ending the day priced at $32 per share.
Not just another meme stock: Gemini, which was founded by the Winklevoss twins in 2014—and just so happens to be the Zodiac sign symbolized by twins—is a crypto derivatives platform, as well as a crypto exchange that allows people to buy and sell a slew of digital assets like bitcoin. Its competitors include other brokerage firms like Coinbase, Robinhood, Binance, and Interactive Brokers.
While Gemini is soaring today, its actual business is more of a mixed bag. Last year, the company took a net loss of $158.5 million—though its revenue jumped 45% during the same period, according to Barron’s.
Zoom out: Earlier this week, we noted that the IPO pipeline is gushing again after years of feeling more like a slow drip. Crypto IPOs in particular are seriously having a moment thanks to a new deregulatory environment and a spike in the price of bitcoin. Just look at stablecoin issuer Circle, which soared on its first day of trading in June. Or Bullish, which popped during its debut last month. Most recently, Figure soared over 40% when it started trading yesterday.
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One major difference between this latest IPO boom and previous ones is that retail investors are playing a bigger part. Usually, regular traders don’t have access to IPOs the same way that institutional investors do. But Gemini set aside roughly a third of its shares for the retail crowd, well above the average 6% of shares, according to the WSJ.
The Winklevoss’ second act
Part of Gemini’s appeal is also the fame of its founders. While they kicked off their foray into tech by feuding with Mark Zuckerberg in the early days of Facebook, Tyer and Cameron Winklevoss have moved far beyond Armie Hammer’s portrayal of them as spoiled and arrogant college rowers in The Social Network.
Now, they’re bringing in some serious cash from Gemini's public debut, raking in at least $2 billion, with more likely to come.
And hey, maybe they’ll get another chance at a big screen depiction in whatever movie ends up being made about the latest crypto hype cycle.—LB