Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_62dde97d1c654" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Despite a declining global appetite for risk-on assets, Copper has managed to draw investment from one of the world&#8217;s most recognizable banks</li>
 <li>Barclays has reportedly invested &#8220;millions of dollars&#8221; according to a report, though the figure is not expected to be a considerable sum</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



UK-based multinational banking giant Barclays has reportedly bought into crypto custody firm Copper&#8217;s latest raise, concluding long-standing talks with investors in the round which had been delayed since November.



As part of the round, Barclays has invested an undisclosed sum somewhere in the &#8220;millions of dollars,&#8221; <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/barclays-snaps-up-stake-in-2bn-cryptocurrency-firm-copper-12658295" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sky News</a> reported Sunday. It is expected the raise will be finalized in the coming days.



It concludes a more than nine-month delay to its $500 million Series C funding round where Copper had sought a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-18/crypto-trading-firm-copper-seeks-funds-valuing-it-at-3-billion#xj4y7vzkg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$3 billion valuation</a>. A declining crypto market and waning investor interest have reduced that figure to $2 billion.



Barclays became the first bank in the UK to support crypto, namely bitcoin, back in 2015 by coaxing charities to accept the nascent asset class as a form of donations. The bank has often had a checkered past with the industry including denying its services to powerhouse exchange providers Binance and Coinbase.



Delays stemming from Copper&#8217;s bout with the UK&#8217;s Financial Conduct Authority over the country&#8217;s <a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/financial-crime/cryptoassets-aml-ctf-regime#revisions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Temporary Registration Regime</a> had muddied investor proceedings, including with recurring investor Tiger Global.



<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/17/cryptocurrency-firm-linked-to-philip-hammond-still-lacks-uk-approval-copper-technologies" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Frustrations</a> over the UK financial watchdog&#8217;s rule, which required digital asset service providers to apply for temporary registration in order to continue trading, reached a fever pitch in March when Copper set up a hub in <a href="https://zg.chregister.ch/cr-portal/auszug/auszug.xhtml?uid=CHE-477.629.838#" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Zug, Switzerland</a> following a partnership with global traditional custodian State Street.



Founded by Dmitry Tokarev in 2018, Copper provides custody, prime broking and settlement services to institutional investors. The firm previously raised $50 million via a <a href="https://copper.co/insights/crypto-scaleup-copper-co-secures-50-million-series-b-investment-co-led-by-dawn-capital-and-target-global" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Series B</a> funding round in June of last year with an undisclosed valuation.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

Barclays Takes Punt on Crypto Firm Copper in Latest Funding Round

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_622b5d8ed55dc" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Steve Sadin is set to help build FTX’s new unit focused on gamers to earn, buy, sell, lend, borrow and trade game assets</li>
 <li>Travelocity co-founder seeks to help HOKK Finance transform from a meme token to a DeFi ecosystem</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Crypto exchange FTX named Steve Sadin its head of gaming partnerships as the company seeks to build out its <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ftx-to-launch-gaming-unit-to-support-mainstream-crypto-adoption/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">new gaming division</a>.



In the newly created role, Sadin will collaborate with major gaming brands to help developers launch tokens and own digital assets using FTX’s upcoming crypto-as-a-service platform. FTX Gaming will focus on offering developers the crypto infrastructure needed to enable players to earn, buy, sell, lend, borrow and trade game assets inside and outside the games.



Sadin most recently led WB Game’s Boston studio, where he launched the mobile real-time strategy title, Game of Thrones: Conquest.



London-based crypto custodian firm Copper.co appointed Sabrina Wilson as its new chief operating officer.



Wilson was most recently global co-head of Citi’s futures, over-the-counter clearing and foreign exchange prime brokerage business. She has also served in various roles at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank.



“We need individuals like Sabrina who have experience across world leading traditional financial institutions to align our operations even closer with the needs of accredited investors, so it can best contribute to the evolution of global financial infrastructure,” Copper.co CEO Dmitry Tokarev said in a statement.



Valour, an issuer of digital asset ETP, hired John Sjöberg as its chief information officer. The Switzerland-based firm, which offers products focused on Solana, Polkadot, Cardano, Uniswap and others, has said <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/cardano-polkadot-etps-hit-frankfurt-stock-exchange/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">it plans to roll out</a> more single-asset, crypto basket and thematic ETPs (exchange-traded products) this year.



Sjöberg joins from Swedish stock exchange Nordic Growth Market where he served as chief technology officer and head of market data.



Blockchain infrastructure company Blockdaemon acquired crypto API company Gem, welcoming its CEO, Micah Winkelspecht, and a team of engineers and product professionals.



“Our united teams and products will be a formidable combination to serve both institutional and retail users of cryptocurrency,” Winkelspecht said.



The acquisition follows Blockdaemon’s recent Series C funding round of $207 million, giving it a post-money valuation of $3.25 billion.



Crypto-focused asset management firm Hashdex hired Nicole Dyskant as its global head of legal and compliance.



Dyskant founded law firm Dyskant Advogados, which represented more than 100 asset managers and investment advisers clients. She also co-founded Compliasset, a regulatory compliance software offering for the Brazilian fund industry.



HOKK Finance appointed Lawrence Hutson as its chief technology officer as it seeks to transform from a meme token to a DeFi ecosystem. The company recently launched an Ethereum aggregator and a range of yield-earning non-fungible tokens (NFTs).



Hutson co-founded and worked as chief technology officer for travel website Travelocity before Expedia acquired it for $280 million in 2015.



Vincent Berk has joined Quantum Xchange as its chief revenue and strategy officer. He was formerly the chief technology officer and chief security architect for Riverbed Technologies.



Quantum Xchange CEO Eddy Zervigon said in a statement that Berk joins the company at the beginning of a multiyear cryptographic transition that will require nearly all organizations to replace their classic encryption with quantum-safe solutions.



Symbiont, a fintech company using blockchain technology, hired Silvia Davi as its chief marketing and communications officer and Tom DeJarnette as its chief people officer.



Davi has held leadership roles at firms such as Nasdaq, Edelman, Instinet and Marsh McLennan. She more recently worked for fintechs Thesys Technologies and 280 CapMarkets and serves on the advisory board of the Museum of American Finance.



DeJarnette is a former consultant for the Voluntary Employee Benefits Association and was also a lead tactical planner and ground force commander during multiple combat deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

Latest in Crypto Hiring: FTX Adds Gaming Partnerships Lead

Liz Coyne

In this video Blockworks’&nbsp;“<a href="https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvER9nHSRN3wZX2tI3JrCLOAzMBgUJtBo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Forward Guidance</a>” podcast host Jack Farley sat down with Copper.co&#8217;s CEO Dmitry Tokarev, at Blockworks&nbsp;<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/das-london/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Digital Asset Summit in London</a>&nbsp;to talk about the risks in the digital assets space.



Tokarev started his career as a Quant, having graduated from Imperial College, London, with a Distinction in Risk Management and Financial Engineering. He later helped to build an asset management firm as its CTO and as a partner. It was there he observed a gap in the market for Copper.co, as he found there were no feasible options available to institutional investors in the crypto space that allowed for the necessary security, control and speed of storing crypto assets.



Watch the full interview below.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="The Three Pillars of Risk in Digital Assets | Copper.co CEO Dmitry Tokarev" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TBez48lAI-M?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



Get the day’s top crypto news and insights delivered to your inbox every evening.&nbsp;<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/newsletter/?source=end" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Subscribe to Blockworks’ free newsletter</a>&nbsp;now.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>

Copper.co CEO: Three Pillars of Risk in Digital Assets

Casey Wagner

<div id="highlights-block_615caca108224" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Glenn Barber recently joined Copper from the traditional financial space </li>
 <li>Traditional players that are looking to get involved in crypto will probably feel more comfortable with more defined regulations, he said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Glenn Barber, head of sales in the Americas at Copper, sat down with Blockworks during the New York Digital Assets Summit to discuss the state of the cryptocurrency industry and how companies are staying ahead.&nbsp;



“I’ve found that things move really quickly,” Barber said, speaking about changes in the space.&nbsp;



“Firms that want to be successful in crypto really do have to say ‘okay, what does the market cycle look like, how are we going to deliver that,’ and that is a big responsibility.”&nbsp;



Barber started his role in August 2021 after a career in traditional finance. Cryptocurrencies can be intimidating for investors and institutions that are accustomed to strict regulations and protocols.&nbsp;



“One of the evolving themes of traditional financial players getting into the space is the question of how to maintain fiduciary responsibility,” he said. “I think people from this space not take for granted, but are just so used to the embedded layers of investor protection that the various regulatory regimes over decades have put into place.”&nbsp;



Newcomers into space are concerned about security and serving clients the best they can and regulatory measures will hopefully help traditional financial players feel more comfortable entering the digital asset space, Barber said.&nbsp;



Watch the full interview below and all of the panel videos from DAS&nbsp;<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/digital-asset-summit-2021-2/#videoslider0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="DAS New York 2021: Copper&#039;s Glenn Barber Talks about Traditional Financial Players and Regulation" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KXWI1hVfEk0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



Are you a UK or EU reader that can’t get enough investor-focused content on digital assets?&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/das-london/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Join us</a>&nbsp;in London on November 15th and 16th for the Digital Asset Summit (DAS) London. Use code ARTICLE for £75 off your ticket.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/das-london/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Buy it now</a>.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>

Copper’s Barber: Traditional Financial Players Want to See Regulation in Crypto

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_612ceed43cc75" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>“To allow for the adoption of this asset class, you need to introduce some of the safeguards and frameworks that people are quite used to operating in and within the traditional world,” he said </li>
 <li>“People that are coming in, of course they realize the potential of crypto, but also they realize this is not just a technology problem. We also have a financial service problem to solve,” he said </li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Asen Kostadinov, head of strategy at Copper.co, shared his insights into the current market for crypto funding and infrastructure development among larger financial institutions during the Bretton Woods: The Realignment conference after he spoke on the “The Case for Central Bank Digital Currencies” panel.&nbsp;



In the interview, Kostadinov shared his takeaways from the conference and also talked about:&nbsp;



<ul><li>The evolution of crypto funding&nbsp;</li><li>Tier 1 banks seeking advice for digital asset strategies&nbsp;</li><li>The rapid institutionalization of the crypto space&nbsp;</li><li>Adoption of alternative asset classes&nbsp;</li></ul>



Watch the full interview with Kostadinov below.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Bretton Woods: Copper.co&#039;s Asen Kostadinov Sees Growth for Funding and Infrastructure in Crypto" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Gi1NPfZG6Pg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



Want more investor-focused content on digital assets?&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/digital-asset-summit-2021-2/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Join us</a>&nbsp;September 13th and 14th for the Digital Asset Summit (DAS) in NYC. Use code ARTICLE for $75 off your ticket.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/digital-asset-summit-2021-2/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Buy it now</a>.