Gemini has appointed crypto executive James Logan as its Sydney-based country head, registered as a digital currency provider with regulator AUSTRAC and added a local banking partner, allowing them to accept instant money transfers using Australia's New Payments Platform.
"Obviously I'm very excited to come on board as the head of Australia for Gemini," Mr Logan told AAP.
"There's a lot of plans here, there's obviously a lot of work, six to eight months worth of work, that's gone into planning."
Gemini plans to grow its Sydney-based team and add roles in compliance, marketing and growth in the future, "so that we can sort of deeply understand and have boots on the ground to understand from Australian consumers what we need to build," said Saad Ahmed, Gemini's Singapore-based head of Asia-Pacific.
Gemini serves customers in more than 60 countries and has facilitated over $US200 billion ($303 billion) in trading volume.
Mr Ahmed said Gemini had a culture of compliance with regulations and welcomed the new crypto rules being developed by the Albanese government.
"We welcome regulation, and I think we feel very confident that whatever the regulation is we will be able to use our existing methodologies, processes, workflows, whether it's related to compliance, whether it's related to governance, whether it's related risk, and bring that to Australia to be compliant with whatever the regulations are here," he said.
Mr Logan echoed that sentiment, saying the new rules would be a positive for the crypto industry.
"I think with the new regime that's coming in, consumers will have more confidence in the space once there's official regulatory oversight," he said.Â
"I think the banking sector probably will have a similar response as well, which will be overall, a good thing for the industry."
Some crypto exchanges have had issued with finding a local banking partner, with Binance Australia notably losing their ability to offer Australian dollar bank transfers in 2023 after payment provider Cuscal withdrew its services.
Gemini was holding an official launch party on Thursday night at Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens.
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