Winklevoss Twins' Gemini Exchange Partners With eSports Franchise Echo Fox

This marks Gemini's first team sponsorship. Tyler Winklevoss, the exchange's co-founder and CEO, sees opportunity in gaming for cryptocurrency adoption. He stated that Gemini is "especially well positioned to create a safe ecosystem for frictionless money transfer within eSport." Winklevoss added: "Due to a general familiarity with cryptocurrencies, the gaming community is a natural place to cultivate understanding and trust as we work to introduce the benefits of digital assets to a broader, more mainstream market."

Echo Fox owner Rick Fox offered a different view. "With the rapid increase in the number of popular international events and athletes coming from every corner of world, the borderless nature of bitcoin makes it a promising candidate to become the de facto standard for payments across all aspects of eSports," he said. He also noted the connection between gaming and digital assets: "There is a deep-seated connection between video game culture and digital currency and the futures of both are innately linked."

Gemini's partnership follows its expansion into new markets. The exchange started US operations in October 2015 after New York State's Department of Financial Services approved its license. Gemini is the only government-approved US exchange to trade ether. The company opened Canadian and UK operations on June 6 and June 21 respectively. Based in New York City, Gemini plans to become a global digital asset exchange.

Other bitcoin companies have tested gaming and cryptocurrency integrations. In April 2015, Xapo (a bitcoin wallet and vault service), CEVO (a global eSports company), and Leet (a bitcoin-based gaming service) launched a partnership allowing CEVO users to earn bitcoin by playing games such as League of Legends, TF2, and Counter-Strike.