Copper establishes regulated US foothold, brings custody, staking and ClearLoop trading infrastructure to institutions Digital asset infrastructure provider Copper has taken a major step into the US market: its subsidiary Copper Markets (US) Inc. is now an SEC‑registered broker‑dealer and a FINRA member. That regulated status gives Copper a formal route to offer institutional custody, trading and collateral services inside the US securities framework. What this enables - Copper Markets (US) can operate as a broker‑dealer while building out a qualified custodian business for institutional digital assets, subject to applicable regulatory requirements. - Planned services for US institutional clients include qualified custody, staking, financing and over‑the‑counter (OTC) trading. - Institutional users will have access to Copper’s ClearLoop network, the company’s collateral-management layer that lets counterparties pledge crypto and tokenized assets without having to transfer them to an exchange before each trade. How ClearLoop works and why it matters ClearLoop — launched in 2020 — separates custody from trading: assets remain secured in Copper‑controlled wallets while trading and settlement are handled through the ClearLoop infrastructure. That approach reduces the need for institutions to hold large balances directly on exchanges, limiting exchange‑specific counterparty exposure. Copper has been integrating ClearLoop across the institutional ecosystem for years. Notable milestones: - August 2024: Added custody and staking for Mina Protocol, enabling institutional access to MINA while keeping assets in Copper custody. - February 2025: Partnered with BitGo to let clients trade spot and derivatives on Deribit while assets stayed secured off‑exchange; BitGo Trust provided qualified custody and ClearLoop handled automatic settlement. - 2025: Launched an agency lending platform that uses ClearLoop to ring‑fence loaned assets, support overcollateralized lending and deliver real‑time position monitoring. Staking and partnerships Copper is rolling staking into its US product set, building on prior partnerships: - March 2025: Integration with Figment to offer institutional staking across networks such as Ethereum, Solana and Polkadot. - April 2025: Partnership with P2P.org to combine Copper’s custody and prime services with P2P.org’s staking and rebalancing tech. Copper’s broader custody work has also included integrations with networks like Hedera and Mina. Regulatory context Copper’s broker‑dealer registration arrives at a time of active regulatory review in the US: - In July, the SEC added crypto‑related items to its 2026 rulemaking agenda, including potential changes around broker‑dealer financial responsibility for crypto activity, exemptions or safe harbors for certain crypto offers and sales, and rules for trading crypto on ATSs and national exchanges. - The broker‑dealer route is one of several paths digital asset firms have taken to offer regulated custody in the US. Recent moves include OCC approvals and applications for trust charters: Circle’s Circle National Trust received final OCC approval in July; conditional OCC decisions were issued in December 2025 for firms such as Ripple, Paxos, BitGo and Fidelity Digital Assets; and Kraken parent Payward applied to the OCC in May for a national trust charter for Payward National Trust Company. - At the SEC level, the Division of Investment Management issued a no‑action letter in September 2025 allowing, under specified conditions, investment advisers to use certain state‑chartered trust companies as custodians. Operational details FINRA records list registered personnel at Copper Markets (US) — including staff across finance, compliance, operations and revenue — signaling the firm is staffing up to operate under US broker‑dealer and custody rules. Why it matters Copper’s new regulated US entity puts custody at the center of its institutional offering and gives the company another compliant path for bringing its ClearLoop collateral and trading infrastructure to American institutions. As US rulemaking for crypto evolves, having a broker‑dealer qualified custodian in place could help Copper scale services like staking, financing and over‑the‑counter trading while operating under an established securities‑market framework. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news