Gemini to build metaverse from the latest $400 million growth equity funding round

The Winklevoss twins' crypto exchange Gemini will allocate funds from its $400 million funding round into developing a "Gemini experience in different Metaverses."

Gemini to build metaverse from the latest $400 million growth equity funding round

Gemini declared that it had closed a $400 million equity growth funding round at a valuation of $7.1 billion on Nov, 18. marking the first time the firm had looked outside financing. Morgan Creek Digital led the round with participation from 10T, Marcy Venture Partners, ParaFi, and New flow Partners to name a few.

Eminently, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) which too partnered with Gemini to launch the first crypto trading services offered by a major four Australian bank additionally backed the round.

"With this round of financing, Femini will keep on bringing straightforward, innovative, and secure products to market, and advance its geographic expansion," the announcement read.

During an interview with Forbes published on Nov 18, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss outlined their plans to extend Gemini's reach into the Metaverse.

Tyler noticed that instead of building numerous "branches in meatspace," a reference to the famous meme-based description of actual reality the company is planning to spread itself across multiple Metaverses:

“We're gonna build a Gemini experience in different Metaverses, where you can go into Gemini and trade, but it would be immersive instead of on your phone.

According to Forbes, the wins will retain 75% of ownership over Gemini, with Morgan Creek's general partner Sachin jaitly joining the board of directors as part of his firm's $75 million investment into the crypto platform.

The progress will once again bring the duo into competition with Mark Zuckerberg, who they famously battled in court over the ownership of Facebook more than a decade before, The twins sued Zuckerberg in 2004, claiming that he stole their intellectual property to build Facebook, and went on to settle in court in 2011 for $65 million.

Cameron accentuated to Forbes that unlike the centralized roadmap for the Metaverse from firms "like Facebook or Fortnite," Gemini is aiming for the decentralized route due to the belief that it offers greater upside for the user:

“But there is another path, which is the decentralized Metaverse and that’s the Metaverse where we believe there’s a greater choice, independence, and opportunity, and there is a technology that protects the rights and dignity of individuals.”

"Decentralization is a spectrum," Cameron added, noting that "we need to keep on the move down the spectrum towards empowerment,"

The twins snapped up plots of land in The Sandbox Metaverse at the start of April, with Tyler noting at that time the plan was to set up Gemini's crypto exchange and NFT Gateway in the play to earn a focused virtual world.

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