Barclays Tops the List of Investors in Copper Funding Round
- Copper opted for a swiss license registration after failing to register with the UK’s financial conduct authority.
Popular UK bank, Barclays, is reportedly one of the leading investors in a funding round organized by Copper, a rising crypto custody company. A Sky News report states that Copper’s funding round is expected to be concluded within the next few days. The report added that Barclays proposed investment in Copper would likely be in the “millions of dollars” range.
According to the funding round, Copper has a valuation of $2 billion. Copper is a licensed crypto firm with Switzerland’s financial services standard association (FSSA). The FSSA is a self-regulatory firm approved by the nation’s financial watchdog, the financial market supervisory authority (FINMA).
Barclays Looks at Crypto Market Via Copper Investment
Copper opted for a swiss license registration after failing to register with the UK’s financial conduct authority. However, it is worth noting that the crypto custody firm has a temporary registration license with the UK’s FCA. Companies with a temporary license can still provide their services in the UK until the FCA provides full authorization.
One of Copper’s senior advisors is Philip Hammond, an ex-chancellor of the UK treasury. In June 2021, the London-based firm earned $75 million in a series b fundraising round. Billionaire venture capitalist, Alan Howard, topped the list of investors at that fundraiser with a $25 million investment.
Copper offers settlement, custody, and prime broking services to its institutional investors by investing their fiat in digital assets. Some of the top venture capital investors in the crypto firm are MMC Ventures, LocalGlobe, and Dawn Capital. The Dmitry Tokarev-founded crypto custody firm started operations four years ago.
Earlier in the year, Copper’s target was to have at least a $3 billion valuation after its next funding round. However, the company had to lower its projection following the general downturn in the broader crypto market. Many investors are now reluctant to invest in the previously fast-growing industry due to its current conditions.
In the last couple of months, some of the industry’s top players have collapsed or declared bankruptcy. Terra network crashed in May, while Celsius And Three Arrows Capital (3AC) declared bankruptcy earlier this month.
Side Notes
Statista data states that Barclays’ total assets as of December 31, 2021, are worth about $1.4 trillion. Thus, making it one of the largest banks in the UK. Before making plans to invest in Copper, Barclays has had various involvements with the crypto industry.
It started accepting Bitcoin for charity donations in 2015. A year later, it launched a social payment app with USDC issuers, circle. Users of this app were able to convert their fiat to Bitcoin. However, in July 2021, it announced that none of its customers would be able to purchase cryptos with their Barclays credit cards on Binance.
The announcement followed Binance’s regulatory issues with the FCA at that time. Neither the crypto firm nor the banking giant has issued an official statement or press briefing.
Rebecca is a Senior Staff Writer at BitcoinWisdom, working hard to bring you the latest breaking news in the cryptocurrency market. In the words of Elon Musk “Buy stock in several companies that make products & services that *you* believe in. Only sell if you think their products & services are trending worse. Don’t panic when the market does. This will serve you well in the long-term.”
