In light of the recent wave of bankruptcies in the cryptocurrency sector, venture capital investments have slowed significantly. This is why news of Barclays’ move to invest in Copper, a prominent crypto custody firm, comes as a surprise.
According to a July 24 report by Sky News, the UK-based lender is one of many new investors joining a funding round for Copper. Lord Phillip Hammond, a former UK chancellor, is among the company’s advisors.
According to sources in London, Barclays is expected to make a sizable investment “in millions of dollars” as part of the round. The fund-raising event is scheduled to be concluded within the next few days.
Copper provides institutional investors with a variety of services for their digital asset investments, including custody, prime broking, and settlement.
Dmitry Tokarev founded the company in 2018 and has already attracted investments from MMC Ventures, LocalGlobe, and Dawn Capital, among other large global venture capital firms.
Early this year, Copper planned to raise at least $3 billion in its most recent funding round. Since then, the company has reduced its operations in response to the escalating crisis in the larger crypto-asset market.
In recent weeks, several high-profile market participants, including Celsius, Three Arrows Capital, and Voyager Digital, have filed for bankruptcy or ceased processing withdrawals. As a result, people are now less optimistic about the industry’s historically rapid growth.
As a result of its unsuccessful attempts to be regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Copper decided to become regulated and establish a center in Switzerland. The company left the UK for Switzerland because it was dissatisfied with how the UK’s regulators handled the regulation process.
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