Copper

Copper is an institutional digital-asset infrastructure company founded in 2018 to build the custody, settlement, and prime-service layers that large trading firms, hedge funds, asset managers, and ETP providers need to participate in crypto markets without carrying exchange counterparty risk. The firm has grown from a custody-focused startup into one of the market's most cited off-exchange settlement networks, processing more than $70 billion in monthly notional trading volume through its flagship ClearLoop platform. Solana is part of that footprint: Copper was the first institutional custody provider to extend DeFi connectivity to the Solana ecosystem, and on-chain Solana vaults are now integrated directly into ClearLoop settlement infrastructure.

Custody Infrastructure: MPC at the Core

Copper's foundational product is institutional-grade custody built on Multi-Party Computation (MPC) technology. Unlike traditional custody models that depend on a single private key, MPC distributes the signing process so no single device or person can unilaterally authorize a transaction. This eliminates the single point of failure that has historically made institutional key management a liability. The platform is ISO certified and SOC2 compliant, covering more than 50 blockchain networks.

Copper's custody system supports the full range of institutional workflows: policy-based transaction approvals, role-based access controls, and API connectivity for programmatic asset management. Client types span hedge funds, trading firms, venture capital funds, exchanges, ETP providers, foundations, and miners.

ClearLoop: The Off-Exchange Settlement Network

ClearLoop, launched in 2020, is Copper's most significant product contribution to institutional crypto infrastructure. It was the first off-exchange settlement solution in the market and remains its largest: by mid-2026, ClearLoop was processing over $70 billion in monthly notional trading volume across more than 1,000 active counterparties.

The core insight behind ClearLoop is that institutional traders have been forced to pre-fund exchange accounts in order to trade — locking up capital on exchange balance sheets and creating unacceptable counterparty exposure. ClearLoop solves this by allowing participants to delegate assets from Copper's MPC custody directly to connected exchanges. Trades execute in real time on exchange order books, but the underlying assets never leave Copper's custody. Settlement occurs via delivery-versus-payment (DvP) within the custody layer, with no blockchain transactions required per trade, eliminating gas costs and on-chain latency.

The trust structure is governed under English Law, with Copper acting as trustee. The arrangement provides bankruptcy-remote protections against both exchange insolvency and Copper's own insolvency — a level of structural protection that traditional crypto settlement has not historically offered.

Connected venues include Coinbase, OKX, Bybit, Deribit, Gate.io, Bitget, Binance, and others across a network Copper describes as spanning 40-plus exchanges. The network is also multi-custodial: third-party custodians including BitGo and Komainu participate, and FalconX has integrated ClearLoop into its Prime Connect offering.

In June 2026, Copper and FalconX announced ClearLoop Loans, a product that combines institutional financing directly with off-exchange settlement. Eligible clients can access up to 4x leverage while trading across Bybit, Deribit, and OKX, with financed positions remaining within the ClearLoop framework rather than on exchange balance sheets.

Solana Integration: CopperConnect and On-Chain Vaults

Copper's DeFi connectivity tool, CopperConnect, launched in November 2020 as an institutional-grade gateway to decentralized applications. In August 2022, Copper became the first institutional custody provider to extend CopperConnect to the Solana blockchain, granting institutional clients governed, MPC-secured access to Solana DeFi — lending, borrowing, staking, and token swapping — without giving up custody of their assets.

The Solana relationship deepened significantly in April 2026 with the Neutral Trade partnership. Neutral Trade builds non-custodial, on-chain quantitative strategy vaults on Solana. The integration connects those vaults to ClearLoop, enabling vault capital to be deployed against centralized exchange order books — on Binance, OKX, Bybit, Hyperliquid, Drift, and others — while assets remain secured in Copper's institutional custody. Strategy operators receive delegated capital through ClearLoop and execute trades without assets leaving the custody layer. A live example is Hyperithm's cross-exchange arbitrage strategy, which had reached $8 million in TVL via this infrastructure by the time of the partnership announcement.

This architecture positions Solana as a deposit and settlement layer for institutional quantitative strategies that simultaneously demand on-chain transparency and access to centralized exchange liquidity depth — previously an either-or constraint.

Expanding Institutional Product Suite

Beyond settlement, Copper has built out a broader institutional product set. In 2024, the company announced a strategic vision to provide custody for tokenized money market funds, including BlackRock's BUIDL fund, with settlement and redemption workflows built into its custody architecture.

In July 2026, Copper added YLDS — a blockchain-native face-amount certificate registered under the U.S. Investment Company Act of 1940 and issued by Figure Certificate Company — to its custody platform. YLDS earns SOFR minus 0.35%, accrued daily and paid monthly in USD or YLDS tokens, and is not subject to the yield restrictions imposed on stablecoins under the GENIUS Act. Its availability on Copper gives institutional clients a regulated yield-bearing instrument that lives within the same custody and compliance framework as their other digital assets.

Copper's stablecoin rewards program has also expanded, with Ripple's RLUSD and Solstice joining the network in spring 2026. In June 2026, Copper's Middle East entity (Copper ME) received In-Principle Approval from the Abu Dhabi Financial Services Regulatory Authority for Virtual Asset Custody and Investment Services, extending the firm's regulated footprint into the Abu Dhabi Global Market.

Team and Backing

Copper was founded in 2018 and is registered in Liechtenstein as Copper Markets (Liechtenstein) AG. The company appointed Amar Kuchinad as Global CEO in October 2024 and Mike Kuehnel as Chairman in April 2026, with John Meserve joining as a Non-Executive Director at the same time. Investors include Target Global, Local Globe, MMC Ventures, and Barclays.

As of mid-2026, Copper has engaged Cantor Fitzgerald to explore a potential sale of the company at approximately $500 million — a shift from earlier IPO discussions in January 2026 that had involved Goldman Sachs, Citi, and Deutsche Bank. The pivot reflects broader crypto IPO market conditions rather than any change in Copper's operational trajectory; the platform continues to add product lines and institutional partnerships at pace.

Copper carries no native governance or utility token. Its value proposition is infrastructure: custody, settlement rails, financing, and DeFi access that let institutional capital engage with crypto markets on terms that meet enterprise risk and compliance standards.