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DB Deribit VS GM Gemini
These two exchanges don't share an obvious product overlap. Differences below come from our individual reviews of Deribit and Gemini.
| Deribit | Gemini | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2016 | 2014 |
| Regions | Not available to US persons directly; as of September 2026, eligible US users can reach Deribit's order books through Coinbase Financial Markets as a regulated intermediary. Broadly available elsewhere, subject to Deribit's own jurisdictional restrictions. | Strong US availability under New York state trust-company oversight. A separate non-US entity, Gemini Foundation, offers derivatives to customers outside the US, UK, and EU; US customers cannot trade margin or perpetual futures on Gemini at all. |
| Products | Options, Perpetual futures, Dated futures, Combo/spread orders | Spot, Staking, Perpetual futures (non-US customers only, via Gemini Foundation), Institutional custody |
| Maker fee | Not yet verified | Verify current tier: Gemini's default app and its ActiveTrader interface run different, volume-based fee schedules |
| Taker fee | Not yet verified | Verify current tier: Gemini's default app and its ActiveTrader interface run different, volume-based fee schedules |
Deribit pros
- The dominant global crypto options venue by a wide margin, holding roughly half of all Bitcoin and Ethereum options volume and an even larger share of Bitcoin options specifically
- Purpose-built options infrastructure (combo orders, a full volatility surface, portfolio margining) that generalist exchanges bolting on an options tab don't match
- Backed by Coinbase's balance sheet and compliance infrastructure since the August 2025 acquisition, addressing a long-standing question about counterparty durability at a derivatives-only exchange
- Keeps roughly 99% of user funds in cold storage with third-party custody (Fireblocks, Cobo) for the operational portion, and covered a 2022 hot-wallet loss entirely from company reserves rather than user funds
Gemini pros
- NYDFS-chartered limited purpose trust company with fiduciary and qualified-custodian status under New York Banking Law since 2015
- Now a publicly traded company (Nasdaq: GEMI, listed September 2025), adding public financial disclosure on top of existing state oversight
- Strong account-security tooling, including hardware-key 2FA, and no reported hack resulting in loss of customer crypto
- The Earn collapse was ultimately resolved with the large majority of assets returned, and an arbitrator later found Gemini itself not at fault
This table is generated from the same data behind our individual exchange reviews. See methodology for how it's put together. Fee figures marked "not yet verified" need confirming against live terms before this page is treated as launch-ready.