Barclays Joins List of Investors Backing Crypto Custodian Copper: Report

Digital asset firm Copper is reportedly raising new funding, with banking giant Barclays among the new backers, according to a Sky News report citing City of London sources.

According to the report, Barclays is investing “a relatively modest sum in the millions of dollars” as part of Copper’s latest round of financing, which is expected to be completed “within days.”

Founded by Dmitry Tokarev in 2018, Copper provides deposit, prime broking and settlement services to institutional investors. The firm has also developed a proprietary trading technology, ClearLoop, which connects crypto exchanges and offers offline storage of funds while trades are executed.

The London-based firm secured $75 million in a Series B funding round last June, with billionaire investor Alan Howard leading a $25 million extension to the raise.

The firm has also attracted several other big names in the global venture capital sector, including LocalGlobe, Dawn Capital and MMC Ventures.

In addition, the Copper Lord hired Philip Hammond, who served as UK Chancellor of the Exchequer under former Prime Minister Theresa May from 2016 to 2019, as a senior adviser.

Last November, the firm reportedly sought a $500 million Series C raise that would have put its valuation at $3 billion, with Tiger Global, SoftBank Group and Accel among the participants.

However, the bear market in 2022 caused Copper to scale this figure back, according to Sky News.

Copper has not yet received approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which requires digital asset service providers to apply for temporary registration to continue operating, but won regulatory approval in Switzerland in May.

Decrypt has reached out to Copper for comment, but did not immediately hear back.

Barclays and crypto

Barclays was the first UK-based private bank to support cryptocurrencies in 2015 when it began accepting Bitcoin for charity donations.

The bank partnered with finance company Circle in 2016 to launch a social payments app that allowed users to convert pounds into Bitcoinbefore launching a new venture arm focusing on areas such as artificial intelligence, distributed ledgers and smart contracts in 2018.

Last year, after the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority cracked down on BinanceHowever, Barclays told customers it was blocking them from sending their money to the world’s largest crypto exchange.