Copper

The Copper crypto company was founded in 2018 by Dmitry Tokarev in London. It creates products that allow large organizations to acquire, store and resell digital assets. Copper manages transactions of more than £500m each month (as of February 2020)

History

2022: Attracting investment from Barclays

On July 24, 2022, Barclays invested in Copper, a crypto service created by a Russian investor, despite a decrease in global appetite for risky assets such as crypto assets. This was reported in the credit institution itself.

The bank did not disclose the volume of investments in the startup. Probably, we are talking about an amount exceeding $1 million, reports Sky News,. Copper has also attracted several other big names in the global venture capital sector, including LocalGlobe, Dawn Capital and MMC Ventures.

Barclays invested in Copper

At the beginning of 2022, Forbes reported that Copper expects to receive at least $3 billion in the last round of investments, since then the amount has decreased due to the growing crisis in the larger crypto asset market. Since early June 2022, a number of major market players such as Three Arrows Capital, Celsius and Voyager Digital have filed for bankruptcy or suspended withdrawals, undermining confidence in the industry's historically rapid development.

Copper, founded by Dmitry Tokarev in 2018, provides institutional investors with custodial, prime brokerage and settlement services. The company also developed its own trading technology, ClearLoop, which connects cryptocurrency exchanges and offers offline storage of funds during transactions. The company hired Lord Philip Great Britain Hammond, who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under former Prime Minister Theresa May from 2016 to 2019, as a senior adviser.

Copper was also unhappy with the position of the UK financial authorities, prompting the company to build a hub in Switzerland rather than the UK. Due to the fact that the regulation of financial services in the UK as a whole is carried out by the FCA and the Bank of England. The FCA is responsible for protecting consumers from possible damage, protecting and strengthening the integrity of the UK financial services sector, and promoting effective competition for consumers. The Bank of England is responsible for eliminating or mitigating risks that could pose a threat to the country's financial stability. Although crypto assets in the UK can be used as a means of exchange, similar to traditional paper currencies, as of July 2022 they are not recognized as legal tender in the country and are not considered currency or money.^[1]

2020: Raising $8 million in investments

In mid-February 2020, Copper received $8 million in investments in the Series A financing round. The company plans to use the raised funds to expand the market. The funding round involved well-known business structures, including two UK venture capital firms LocalGlobe and MMC Ventures, as well as Berlin firm Target Global, which often makes strategic investments in European companies, according to the latest reports.

Copper was originally created as a company operating around the world. This round of venture capital funding is a vote of confidence from investors. Their support will allow us to accelerate scaling, hire teams in key regions and introduce new products and services, - said Dmitry Tokarev, founder and CEO of Copper.

Copper founder Dmitry Tokarev

In 2018, the company raised $1.3 million in investments to pool funds to develop cryptocurrency storage solutions and primary brokerage. The new funding round was conducted to expand Copper's operations in major regions such as Asia and North America, along with expanding its offerings. Tokarev confirmed that the funds received will help the company hire experts who can interact with regulators and development teams in new markets.

Earlier, the startup hoped to open an office in Hong Kong, but these plans had to be postponed due to the outbreak of coronavirus. The final decision to open an office is planned to be made at the end of the first quarter of 2020.^[2]

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