“we’ll see increasing convergence between TradFi and DeFi”

The Cryptonomist interviewed  Patrick Liou, Gemini’s Institutional Director to share his thoughts on the European crypto market, and Gemini’s recent product updates.

You’ve announced plans to build a financial “super app” for Europeans. What core features or services will differentiate Gemini from existing neobanks and crypto platforms?

We want to enable people to seamlessly and confidently engage in the world of crypto, and unlock the potential of their finances with an innovative, all-in-one crypto super app. We’re providing a range of easy-to-use tools for both everyday users, advanced traders and institutional clients in Europe. 

We’re one of the few European crypto platforms to offer a diverse suite of products within a single, intuitive, secure platform, including our spot exchange with 90+ tokens, staking, Tokenized Stocks, and perpetuals.

Since founding, we’ve aimed to meet the highest standards of security, regulation, and compliance, making us one of the most trusted brands and onramps into crypto. In Europe, Gemini has secured an EMI licence in Ireland, plus a MiCA and MiFID II license from the MFSA, proving our commitment to regulated growth in the region.

The launch of derivatives and staking in the EU is a major step. What demand trends are you seeing from institutional clients in these product categories?

Adding derivatives and staking to the Gemini platform was a huge milestone in our European expansion plans. These products provide additional ways for institutions to grow their funds from within the Gemini platform, but cater for different risk-appetites.

For any of their assets sat idle, staking offers a way for them to earn up to 8% interest on SOL and ETH, with no minimum or maximum amount. 

On the other hand, institutions are increasingly demanding alternative, risk-managed financial instruments, and derivatives allow them to execute complex strategies to gain long or short exposure to crypto. With Gemini Perpetuals, they can trade perpetual contracts with up to 100x leverage to try and earn higher returns compared to just spot trading.

How has institutional appetite for crypto evolved over the past year, and what sectors or profiles of institutions are driving this renewed interest?

A more positive regulatory environment and the US government’s creation of a strategic bitcoin reserve has boosted sentiment amongst investors, and so institutions are increasingly adapting to growing client demand for crypto exposure.

We’re seeing more institutions allocating crypto to their balance sheet and utilising Gemini’s direct custody solution, as a hedge against inflation and to capitalise on crypto’s long-term growth opportunity. 

We’re also seeing them utilize capital-efficient instruments such as Gemini Perpetuals, so they can implement sophisticated strategies while benefiting from robust, institutional-grade risk management.

With regulatory divergence between the US and Europe, how is Gemini adapting its institutional offering across these two major markets?

Regardless of the different regulatory frameworks across jurisdictions, Gemini has always sought to ask for permission, not forgiveness, and meet the regulatory requirements required to build trust amongst institutions. Securing a MiFID II licence – no easy feat – earlier this year is a great example of that, allowing us to offer regulated derivatives throughout the EU.

To meet the growing institutional demand in Europe, we’ve been scaling our local Institutional team. We recently hired a new Director of Institutional Sales in Europe, Danny Sheen, who’s doing a great job of strengthening relationships with clients on the ground. Sponsorship of key events such as BTC Amsterdam and Paris Blockchain Week have also been an important way to network with new institutional customers.

And finally, we’re also tailoring our platform for local institutions by listening to their feedback, rolling out new products, and offering competitive pricing. In the coming months, we’ll be updating ActiveTrader – our high-performance interface built for advanced traders and institutions – for an improved experience when executing trades and viewing Gemini’s order book.

Gemini is the first crypto platform to introduce tokenized stocks — what’s the vision behind this move, and how do you see hybrid TradFi–DeFi assets developing in the next few years?

Tokenized Stocks were originally championed by our Founders, Cameron and Tyler, who saw how tokenised equities could broaden market access. We rolled out Tokenized Stocks from idea to launch in under 3 weeks, making us the first crypto platform to bring this to market!

Tokenized equities bridge crypto-native infrastructure with traditional finance, and democratising access to financial opportunities that historically has significant barriers. Users can trade onchain representations of publicly-traded company shares such as MicroStrategy, directly from their Gemini account. 

There’s no need for a brokerage account, and users can access fractional shares and trade outside standard market hours. We see this as a natural extension of crypto’s core principles: openness, accessibility, and efficiency. 

In the future, I think we’ll see increasing convergence between TradFi and DeFi. From companies holding bitcoin in their treasuries to the use of stablecoins and onchain rails for trading and settlement, hybrid financial systems will bring greater efficiency, transparency, and always-on market access.

What are the biggest regulatory or operational challenges you foresee as crypto platforms expand deeper into structured financial products in Europe?

The crypto sector is evolving rapidly, and it’s important that regulations adapt to keep pace. It’s great to see that the world’s first comprehensive regulatory framework, MiCA, has rolled out across the EU now. But it’s not perfect, and I’m sure that changes will be made to it to keep it fit for purpose and take onboard feedback; we may well see a MiCA 2.0 in the future, much like we did with MiFID II.

Operationally, we’ve seen our regional operating models evolve in anticipation of new legislation. This includes building out regional compliance and operations teams to support MiCA custody and trading requirements, as well as appointing local compliance leaders to meet Europe’s AML standards.

Your 2025 State of Crypto report highlights Europe as one of the fastest-growing regions. What key insights or user behaviors stood out most to you?

It’s great to see Europe leading the way in crypto ownership. The UK had the highest increase in adoption from 18% to 24% this year, with France not far behind. Positive regulatory changes are certainly playing a role in this.

The results showed growing demand for advanced crypto investment options, highlighting the need for Gemini Perpetuals. For example, UK crypto holders had the strongest appetite for crypto perpetual futures out of all the markets surveyed, with nearly half of them stating their interest in investing in these products.

It was also very interesting to see the huge impact that the pro-crypto Trump Administration has had beyond the US, with nearly 1 in 5 non-owners in Europe saying that crypto will grow in value as a result.

Looking ahead to 2026, what products or market segments do you believe will drive the next wave of crypto adoption in Europe?

The crypto landscape in Europe is thriving, and I believe this will only continue next year. An area that I’m really excited about is prediction markets, allowing you to essentially build a market on any kind of event, whether that’s politics or sports. Our US entity just received a Designated Contract Market licence from the CFTC, which will allow us to begin offering prediction markets to US customers. 

We’d love to offer prediction markets in Europe in the future. We’re currently monitoring the regulatory landscape to ensure we can do so in a compliant manner, and we believe it would be a great addition to our product offering.