Today, Gemini Trust Company, LLC (Gemini) announced support for Zcash trading and custody. This marks only the third crypto asset added to the Gemini platform, after bitcoin and ether. Gemini stated that this “makes Gemini the first licensed Zcash exchange in the world,” and “NYDFS the first regulatory agency in the world to supervise Zcash.”

As a New York trust company, Gemini is one of the most regulated digital asset exchange and custodian in the world. It is subject to rigorous regulatory oversight by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), is held to the highest level of fiduciary obligations and banking compliance standards, and must adhere to all anti-money laundering (AML) laws, know your customer (KYC) requirements, and consumer protections set forth by the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the New York Banking Law, and the NYDFS.

Gemini went through an extensive approval process with the NYDFS prior to adding support for Zcash. This process included an overview of the Zcash technology and a comprehensive plan that described Gemini’s ability to adequately meet any specific challenges posed by the addition of this new virtual commodity.

The ZCash team said:

“We at the Zcash Company believe that privacy and confidentiality are part of the foundation of an open and democratic society. Privacy supports societal values such as human rights, political freedom, financial inclusion, and economic opportunity. These are values that we share with the regulators of countries like USA and states like New York.”

The Gemini release also provides clarity on its plan for supporting shielded addresses. Gemini stated:

“At launch, Gemini will support deposits from unshielded or shielded addresses, but will only support withdrawals to unshielded addresses. We are working to support withdrawals to shielded addresses in the future.”

The NYDFS has issued a statement on its authorization of Gemini to support Zcash.