Hassan Maishera
Copper, one of the industry's leading digital asset custodians, announced on Friday, July 19th, that it has built on its previous initiative with DFINITY Foundation, the major contributor to the Internet Computer (ICP) blockchain.
Copper’s latest innovation will enable institutional investors to securely custody and stake their ICP assets directly in the Copper Platform.
In a press release shared with Cryptowisser, the team said Copper will offer its clients secure access to the Service Nervous System (SNS) and the Internet Computer Request for Comments (ICRC) token standards on the Internet Computer blockchain. This will be the first time institutional custody providers are enjoying such a service.
The SNS is a powerful form of DAO that allows communities to govern smart contracts and dApps on the Internet Computer completely on-chain, and the ICRC is a token standard created by the Internet Computer working group.
Thanks to this partnership, tokens in the ICP ecosystem powered by chain-key technology such as ckBTC are now available to Copper’s institutional clients. Copper intends to make more tokens available for custody soon.
ckBTC is backed 1:1 by Bitcoin (BTC) and is a multi-chain Bitcoin twin trustlessly created by chain-key cryptography and Internet Computer smart contracts that directly hold Bitcoin.
Without relying on any trusted intermediary, the Internet Computer’s Chain Fusion enables direct interoperability with all major blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other EVMs (and soon Solana). This ensures that chain-key tokens are possible.
A unique feature of ICP smart contracts is that they can read from and write to different chains, enabling developers to write smart contracts spanning different chains. ckETH and ckUSDC are also live on the Internet Computer; many more chain-key twins of ERC20 tokens are expected over the next month.
While commenting on this expansion, Marcos Benitez, Head of Sales, Switzerland, said,
“We are excited to share the news of our enhanced support for the ICP institutional ecosystem. As a leading institutional custody provider, Copper is pleased to integrate the complete tech stack for ICP, encompassing custody, layer 2, and staking, which reinforces our position as the premier institutional-grade custodian to offer these services. With this development, we anticipate facilitating greater access to vital capital for the ecosystem, including funds, venture capitalists, and exchange listings. Our dedication to bolstering the Swiss and Global Web3 ecosystem remains resolute, and we anticipate continued progress and innovation in this dynamic space."
Paul Meesuen, VP of Partnerships at the DFINITY Foundation added that,
“Copper supporting Internet Computer’s ICRC token standard is a major win for ecosystem participants. It provides institutional custody and staking solutions with access to both native ICP and the growing tokenized apps being built on it. This will increase accessibility and institutional adoption, benefiting all projects building tokenized business models on the Internet Computer Protocol.”
With the built-in support for SNS and ICRC tokens, the added support enables crypto exchanges such as Bit2Me, Bybit, BitMEX, Bitget, Derebit, Bitfinex, and others to offer tokens including 2nd layer Bitcoin ckBTC, OpenChat governance token CHAT or the Internet Computer’s first memecoin GHOST to their clients.
This latest development comes at a time when the ICP blockchain is gathering a lot of interest in the Web3 ecosystem. Recently, Valour Inc. launched the first ICP exchange-traded product (ETP), the 1Valour Internet Computer Physical Staking ETP, which tracks the price of ICP.
Copper serves as the custody provider for the Valour ETP, allowing a wider range of investors to gain access to the ICP ecosystem through a secure and transparent investment vehicle.
ICP and Copper are working together to empower institutions with secure, reliable, and data-driven solutions for navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of decentralized finance.
Last month, the Internet Computer Protocol launched Walletless Verified Credentials, enabling efficient and trustworthy sharing of personal data while maintaining privacy and control.
Copper has been around since 2018 and has been building the standard for institutional digital asset infrastructure, focusing on custody and collateral management. At the core of Copper’s infrastructure is ClearLoop, which enables clients to manage collateral and settle trades in near real-time across multiple exchanges, while mitigating counterparty risk and increasing capital efficiency.
Meanwhile, The DFINITY Foundation is a not-for-profit organization of leading cryptographers, computer scientists, and experts in distributed computing. The Foundation leveraged its experience to create the Internet Computer and currently operates as a major contributor to the network.
The Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) is a decentralized cloud 3.0 protocol that allows developers to build and run services and enterprise systems directly on a public blockchain network with unprecedented scalability. Services running on top of ICP are tamper-proof and can natively interact with the outside world in a trustless manner, both with traditional Web 2.0 services and with other blockchains.
