Copper appoints former chancellor Philip Hammond as chair

Hammond has worked with the firm as a senior advisor for just over a year.

The UK’s former chancellor Philip Hammond is further solidifying his position in the crypto space after being appointed chair of Copper.

Hammond has held a senior adviser role at the crypto firm since October 2021, providing strategic advice to the Copper team.

Since joining the company it has grown from 50 to more than 300 employees and doubled revenues, according to Copper.

“I have greatly enjoyed working with Copper, a company that has pioneered the use of digital asset investment technology and which is increasingly emerging as the leading option for global financial institutions to trade and safeguard their digital assets,” Hammond said.

“Recent security and regulatory challenges affecting the digital asset sector have only served to emphasise the need for safe, well-regulated trading infrastructure.”

Copper registered in Switzerland last year after it withdrew its application in the UK.

“I remain firmly of the view that the post-Brexit UK financial services sector needs to embrace distributed ledger technology as a key part of its strategy to remain a major global financial centre,” Hammond added.

Copper CEO Dmitry Tokarev noted Hammond’s “strategic expertise” formed by his career in politics and business and his advocacy within the crypto space.

“In addition to [Hammond’s] guidance and experience benefiting and enhancing Copper, his public advocacy relating to the importance of connecting traditional finance with distributed ledger technology comes at a time when it is needed more than ever,” Tokarev said.

Hammond told the Financial Times that the fintech had almost closed a new funding round, expected to value it at around $2bn.

He also said the firm is still adding new clients and exchanges even with the current disruption in the crypto market.

Against the backdrop of the ongoing FTX collapse, Genesis filed for bankruptcy last week, Coinbase went through a second round of layoffs and was forced to settle $100m with the New York regulators and Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky is being sued for defrauding investors out of billions of dollars.