Barclays Joins the Slew of Investors in Copper’s Ongoing Funding Round – Report

British multinational financial services giant, Barclays Bank has joined the growing list of investors bankrolling digital currency startup, Copper. As reported by Sky News, citing insider sources, Copper is currently raising funds from existing and new investors as it seeks to take its valuation to $2 billion.

Copper is a crypto platform that is gaining recognition by the day for its role as a custody startup, prime brokerage, and settlement services provider to institutional investors deploying money into crypto assets. Since it was founded by Dmitry Tokarev in 2018, the startup has gained a lot of prominent investors on its side including but not limited to LocalGlobe, Dawn Capital, and MMC Ventures.

The role of Copper in the digital currency ecosystem has even earned it more goodwill as the broader industry has been slipping off the edge with bankruptcies and liquidations. Copper initially had the plan to pull the funds to top its valuation of $3 billion, but the prevalent market conditions have slowed its pace significantly.

The backing from Barclays Bank is an affirmation of the niche the startup has occupied as one of the major and compliant crypto platforms in the United Kingdom. With the lack of clarity in the UK crypto landscape, Copper has established another outfit in Switzerland, a country that is known to be more crypto friendly.

Major Banks Banks Backing Crypto Firms

For a while now, the mainstream financial institutions have been exploring an avenue to get involved in the digital currency ecosystem, however, regulatory impasse has kept many away from making this plunge.

The narrative has started changing in recent times with major banks and core financial market players devising more innovative ways to get engaged with the growing industry. Investing in startups building infrastructural capacity in the space is one of the ways this is being done. 

In a move similar to the reported Barclays and Copper move, American financial giant, Goldman Sachs Group Inc has also made a substantive commitment to CertiK, a blockchain security service provider. Goldman backed CertiK in its last funding round when the startup raised $88 million, TheCoinRise also reported that the banking giant was raising funds for a potential bid to acquire embattled crypto lender, Celsius Network.