“Due to Bitcoin’s increasing transaction volume but fixed network capacity, it’s taking much longer for transactions to get mined into a block and included in the Blockchain,” writes Eric Winer, VP of engineering at Gemini.
In his blog post, Winer explained that Gemini has developed proprietary algorithms that determine the likelihood of a client’s bitcoin deposit being confirmed at some point in the future, and then pre-crediting the digital funds in the client’s account before the confirmations have actually taken place on Bitcoin’s blockchain:
“If your transaction passes our criteria (which may take a few minutes), we’ll pre-credit the amount of your deposit and make it available for trading immediately. Our tests show that around two out of three deposits meet the criteria for being pre-credited.”Although bitcoin deposits may be credited to clients’ accounts instantly, Gemini’s standard 3-confirmation threshold will still need to be completed before clients can withdraw any USD or other cryptocurrency that was purchased with the pre-credited bitcoin.
The zero-confirmation deposits will be especially useful for speculators looking to time the markets and make rapid investments decisions on breaking news.
The pre-credited bitcoin deposit option was modeled on Gemini’s “Instant ACH” transfer, which was launched in March of 2016 and functions the exact same way.
Along with the launching of the zero-confirmation bitcoin depositing feature, Gemini also announced that some changes have been made to their Instant ACH deposit option, although specifics were not provided.
