Gemini is giving 30% of its IPO shares to retail traders

Retail investors are getting a shot at something Wall Street rarely hands them: nearly a third of a crypto IPO. Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, is handing out 30% of its IPO shares to everyday traders ahead of its debut this Friday, according to Bloomberg.

The company updated its filing on Tuesday, showing that shares will be made available on Robinhood, Webull, and Moomoo. This makes Gemini one of the few crypto firms to offer such a massive slice of its initial offering to non-institutional buyers.

Gemini originally planned to allocate just 10% to this group, but after a week of marketing, the company decided to triple that figure. At the same time, Gemini also pulled in Nasdaq Inc. through a $50 million private placement, a sign that it’s using every tool it can to give this IPO momentum.

But there’s a catch. Anyone grabbing shares through these platforms has to agree to anti-flipping rules that stop them from dumping their stock during the first month. That means no quick trades, even if the stock pops on day one.

Gemini raises allocation, ties in retail platforms

Cameron and Tyler’s exchange is tapping into a strategy that worked for some companies, and wrecked others. Robinhood, during its own IPO in 2021, gave 35% of shares to its customers through its IPO Access program. It worked for a week.

The price flew above $70, then collapsed to under $7 within a year. Only in 2025 did the stock rebound above $100, but only long-term holders saw that comeback.

This kind of retail-first approach also echoes what Bullish, another crypto platform, did in August. Bullish allocated 20% of its IPO to individuals and high-net-worth clients. It opened at $68, up 84%, before falling to $52.62 by the middle of the week.

Gemini’s going even harder. And they’re betting that retail buyers, many of whom already use the platform, will bring stronger hands than hedge funds.

“Would you rather have a shareholder base full of crypto enthusiasts or a bunch of hedge fund mercenaries who will short your stock the moment they get a whiff of bad news?” asked James Angel, a finance professor at Georgetown University.

Some longtime crypto watchers are glad to see regular folks getting more access to IPOs, but there’s a feeling Gemini might be playing the game a bit.

On the same day it bumped retail’s share of the deal, it also jacked up the price range for the offering, raising it from $17–$19 to $24–$26 a share. That’s not a small move. And it’s hard to ignore the timing.

Still, Craig Stephens from Access IPOs said small investors might be safer grabbing shares at the offering price than chasing them later when the hype kicks in and prices possibly go wild on the open market.

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