According to reports, Barclays, one of the biggest banks in the UK, is investing in Copper’s most recent funding round and will buy stock in the business.
However, the attempt could be viewed as unexpected given that the global cryptocurrency market is in a severe slump and that many UK authorities, including the country’s central bank, are mostly opposed to the asset class.
Introduction to Copper
By delivering custody, trading, and settlement solutions across 450 crypto-assets and more than 45 exchanges, Copper, which was founded in 2018, offers institutional investors a doorway into the crypto asset industry. The company’s primary offering is ClearLoop, a framework that links all global exchanges into a single, safe trading loop with real-time settlement via several networks.
Key Highlights:
- Despite a diminishing global demand for risky assets, Copper has attracted investment from one of the world-renowned banks.
- A report claims that Barclays has committed “millions of dollars,” although the amount is not anticipated to be significant.
Barclays and Crypto
In 2015, Barclays encouraged charities to accept the emerging asset class as a form of gift, becoming UK’s first bank to offer cryptocurrency, namely bitcoin. However, the bank has a troubled history with the sector, including refusing to work with dominant exchange providers Binance and Coinbase.
Before introducing a new venture arm focused on fields like artificial intelligence, distributed ledgers, and smart contracts in 2018, the bank had collaborated with financial services startup Circle to build a social payment app in 2016 that allowed users to transfer pounds into Bitcoin.
