Sky News has reported that Barclays is participating in a funding round of digital asset custody provider Copper.co, which values the startup at $2 billion, citing unnamed sources. The company raised a $75 million Series B in 2021 after extending the round. Last November, Bloomberg reported the company was negotiating with Tiger Global, SoftBank Group and Accel about a $500 million round at a $3 billion valuation. Much has changed for Copper since then.
On the plus side, State Street Digital announced that Copper would be its technology provider for digital asset custody. On the other hand, November saw the peak of the cryptocurrency market. Hence the crypto crash will have impacted that valuation.
Additionally, at the end of June, the UK-based company was informed that it failed to get UK regulatory approval from the FCA, which mainly covers anti-money laundering compliance. Perhaps in anticipation, in May, it was accepted by the Swiss self-regulatory organization, the Swiss Financial Services Standard Association (VQF).
A couple of weeks ago, Carly Nuzbach-Lowery, Chief Legal Officer, told Ledger Insights that “Copper maintains open and active dialogue with regulators across the jurisdictions where we are operating, including of course with the FCA. Since gaining our membership to VQF in May, we are pleased to be able to offer clients services from Switzerland.”
Apart from digital asset custody, Copper provides a crypto trading network that integrates with exchanges.
While State Street was a big win, Barclays will be too. The last month has seen several major banks and incumbent custodians announce digital asset custody deals. Citi, Societe General FORGE, and BNP Paribas Securities Services (BNPP SS) selected Metaco, with BNPP SS also using Fireblocks. To date, Fireblocks is the market leader on the cryptocurrency front, with the largest network for trading purposes. It has raised more than a billion dollars in funding.
