Digital asset exchange Gemini (NASDAQ:GEMI) has completed a long-running regulatory process in Singapore, and its local subsidiary now holds a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
The approval, announced by the company in early September 2026, authorizes Gemini Digital Payments Singapore Pte. Ltd. to provide digital payment token services and cross-border money transfers under the Payment Services Act.
The license is more than a formality.
In Singapore’s two-tier payments regime, standard payment institutions face transaction-volume caps.
An MPI authorization lifts those limits, while placing the firm under a more intensive supervisory framework covering anti-money laundering, customer due diligence, technology risk and regulatory reporting.
For an exchange seeking to serve both retail users and institutions in one of Asia’s most closely watched crypto markets, that combination matters.
Gemini has been active in Singapore since 2020, initially through its US entity, Gemini Trust Company, under a temporary exemption.
MAS granted in-principle approval for an MPI license in October 2024.
In April 2025, the company moved Singapore customers onto the newly incorporated local entity while it finished meeting remaining conditions.
Full authorization arrived nearly two years after that conditional nod, underscoring how demanding Singapore’s licensing path can be even for established global platforms.
Company leadership framed the outcome as confirmation of a multi-year bet on the city-state.
President and co-founder Cameron Winklevoss said the license “validates our commitment and investment in Singapore,” noting that the firm has served customers there since 2020.
CEO and co-founder Tyler Winklevoss called Singapore a natural strategic hub because of its regulatory framework and standing as a global financial center, adding that the license positions Gemini to keep serving both retail and institutional clients.
In Singapore, the local entity already offers spot trading in digital assets, custody and over-the-counter services.
The MPI status does not, by itself, announce new products, fee changes or a broader asset list.
It does, however, put those existing activities on a fully licensed local footing rather than an exemption or in-principle arrangement.
That structure can make it easier to expand payment and institutional offerings later, as long as they stay within the two authorized categories: digital payment tokens and cross-border transfers.
Gemini now sits among a small group of global platforms that have completed the same process.
Coinbase, OKX, Bitstamp, Crypto.com’s Foris DAX Asia unit and others have also obtained MPI licenses in recent years.
Competition among licensed venues is therefore likely to intensify, particularly for institutional flow and compliant cross-border activity.
For customers, the immediate operational picture is continuity.
Holdings and platform access were not disrupted when accounts moved to the Singapore entity in 2025, and the full license mainly formalizes that local structure.
For the industry, the story is Singapore’s still-deliberate posture: welcome to serious operators, but only after they build local entities, controls and reporting that match the scale of an MPI.
Gemini described Singapore as an established hub and thanked its local community for several years of trust.
The license does not guarantee growth. It does, however, give the Winklevoss-founded exchange a clearer, fully regulated base in a market that continues to set a high bar for digital asset firms.