Gemini has announced its completion of a SOC 2 security and privacy exam held by one of the world’s “Big Four” auditing firms, Deloitte & Touche. The exchange has hailed the review as an unprecedented achievement in crypto. The takeaway? Gemini may be highly regulated, but it’s also highly secure.
First Cryptocurrency Exchange … to Demonstrate This Level of Security Compliance
Taking criticisms of their recent regulatory campaign in stride, Gemini has announced their completion of a Type 1 SOC 2 examination — an intensive security-centric test — with prestigious international auditing firm Deloitte.
Gemini Is The World’s First Crypto Exchange and Custodian To Complete SOC 2 Review @Deloitte https://t.co/bNbVYkhl89
— Gemini (@Gemini) January 29, 2019
Released in the summer of 2011 by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) as an extension of the group’s previous and popular SAS 70 audits, SOC 2 exams are designed to test how well idiosyncratic companies ensure the integrity of their computer infrastructure, customers’ data, and financial resources.
Gemini is using its bully pulpit upon finishing Deloitte’s review to highlight the security and privacy of its infrastructure and to advocate for SOC 2s being a standard throughout the cryptoeconomy — just as they’ve been in non-crypto services for years.
“We feel strongly that this standard of compliance is what all retail and institutional consumers should expect of their cryptocurrency exchange and custodian,” Gemini’s Head of Risk Yusuf Hussain commented.
“We know what’s at stake when you trade and store crypto. That is why, in addition to our SOC 2 Type 1 review, we are also committed to obtaining our SOC 2 Type 2 review in 2019. This additional level of assurance will further validate the effectiveness of our internal controls.”
Adding to this committment, Hussain said the exchange promised such reviews on an “annual basis” going forward, a de facto raising of the bar that may cause other top American cryptocurreny exchanges to follow suit.
Agree to Disagree When There’s Money to Be Made
Not your keys, not your crypto, as the ecosystem’s common refrain goes.
With a SOC 2 now under their belts, Gemini has undoubtedly cemented its current position as one of the world’s safest cryptocurrency exchanges for users to interact with. But while security is the lifeblood of such an enterprise, it’s not everything.
Gemini’s recent “Crypto needs rules” ad campaign in New York City certainly grated the cryptocurrency arena’s purists, who generally want to escape the financial world’s old rules, not re-embrace them.
So love ’em or hate ’em for it, that’s what Gemini is rapidly gunning toward: becoming the advance guard of cryptocurrency platforms embracing Old Finance’s kingmaker rules.
And while crypto-anarchists will never see eye to eye with Gemini over such an approach, the strategy could pay off considerably over the long run if the Winklevoss Twins’ leverage the daylight of the mainstream to shape Gemini into anything resembling an elite institution, e.g. the New York Stock Exchange.
Whether that thread will ever pan out, though, remains to be seen. In the interim, it’s no secret to anyone where Gemini is figuratively aiming for: the moon.
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