Winklevoss Brothers Win Crypto Exchange Patent

Winklevoss IP, the company owned by Gemini founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has been awarded with a patent claim that aims to settle exchange traded products (ETPs) holding cryptocurrencies.

The company outlined a system that can execute transactions for ETPs holding cryptocurrencies "such as bitcoins ... ripple, dogecoins ... ether" as well as BBQCoin, among others, according to patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday. The company first filed the application in December of last year.

ETPs, which include exchange-traded-funds (ETF), are a type of security whose prices derive from other investment instruments they are tied to, which in the Winklevoss case, would be cryptocurrencies.

The patent reward is notable as it provides a glimpse into the Winklevoss brothers' continuing efforts to push forward the trading of cryptocurrency-related ETFs after having met hurdles from U.S. regulators.

As previously reported by CoinDesk, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected the brothers' last bid in March 2017 that sought to list a bitcoin-tied ETF on the Bats BZX Exchange, citing risk associated with the trading and regulatory uncertainty.

Currently, the SEC has yet to green-light any bitcoin-related ETFs on exchanges. And in January this year, several firms that were proposing a rule change to the SEC had also withdrawn their filings per requirement by the securities regulator.

Today's patent reward also comes just a month after the Winklevoss IP won another patent claim for strengthening cryptocurrencies' transaction security that could be used in the Gemini exchange, as previously reported by CoinDesk.

The Winklevoss brothers image via CoinDesk