The digital asset infrastructure provider Copper has successfully established itself within the US regulations after Copper Markets (US) Inc. became an SEC-registered broker-dealer and joined the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). This advancement enables the company to deliver institutional custody and trading services domestically.
Summary
- Copper Markets (US) has attained SEC broker-dealer registration along with FINRA membership.
- The US division will offer qualified custody, staking, financing, and OTC services to institutional clients.
- Clients will gain access to Copper’s ClearLoop Network for managing crypto and tokenized assets as collateral.
- Copper emphasized that this approval fortifies its presence in the US as a qualified custodian.
In a recent announcement, Copper disclosed that its US subsidiary has been accepted as a FINRA member, enabling the company to create a regulated framework to provide custody, collateral, and trading infrastructure to institutional clients across the United States.
FINRA records include registered personnel linked to Copper Markets (US), comprising individuals engaged in finance, compliance, operations, and revenue roles. Copper indicated that this approval empowers its US operations to act as a broker-dealer while enhancing its status as a qualified custodian for institutional digital assets.
Copper US division achieves regulated broker-dealer status
Copper Markets (US) plans to offer qualified custody along with staking, financing, and OTC services. Institutional clients will also have access to the ClearLoop Network, which supports collateral management while assets remain under custody.
This model allows institutions to use crypto and tokenized assets as collateral between counterparties without needing to transfer assets to a trading venue before each transaction. Copper has structured its institutional operations around the division of custody from trading activities.
The regulatory status of the US entity provides Copper with a further channel to offer its infrastructure within a well-established securities framework. Under US securities regulations, broker-dealers that keep customer funds and securities can serve as qualified custodians if they satisfy relevant regulatory criteria.
Copper regards its entry into the US market as a declaration of its status as a “Qualified Custodian,” emphasizing custody as a primary service delivered via Copper Markets (US).
This registration coincides with ongoing examinations by US regulators regarding how current broker-dealer regulations may apply as digital assets further align with securities markets. In July, the SEC included crypto-related items in its 2026 rulemaking agenda, addressing broker-dealer requirements, crypto assets, and market structure, as previously reported by crypto.news.
Proposed SEC initiatives include potential changes to broker-dealer financial responsibility rules for crypto activities, possible exemptions for specific crypto offers and sales, and a separate proposal that focuses on trading crypto assets on alternative trading systems and national securities exchanges.
ClearLoop provides Copper with an established institutional settlement network
ClearLoop is a crucial component of the infrastructure Copper is introducing to its US operations. Launched in 2020, this system allows institutional traders to designate assets for trading while retaining them within Copper’s custody framework, with settlements occurring separately post-trade.
This structure strives to reduce the capital institutions need to maintain directly on exchanges, where assets are exposed to exchange-specific counterparty risks.
Copper has dedicated several years to linking ClearLoop with exchanges and various institutional trading providers. In February 2025, BitGo and Copper unveiled a trading model that enables institutional clients to trade spot and derivatives on Deribit while securing assets outside of the exchange.
In this collaboration, BitGo Trust provided qualified custody, with trades being automatically settled through ClearLoop. This arrangement allowed clients to utilize assets held with a custodian for exchange transactions without transferring their entire balance to the trading venue.
ClearLoop has also contributed to collateral management beyond ordinary spot trading. For example, Copper’s agency lending platform, launched in 2025, used the network to protect loaned assets while offering institutions over-collateralized lending and continual monitoring of their positions.
Prior integrations had already commenced across specific crypto networks. In August 2024, Copper rolled out custody and staking for Mina Protocol, which enabled eligible institutional clients to access MINA through its infrastructure. The company highlighted that ClearLoop enabled users to manage collateral and settle transactions across linked exchanges without needing to transfer assets from Copper-controlled wallets.
Copper has expanded staking in conjunction with custody
Staking represents another facet of the services Copper plans to provide via its US operations, which have evolved through various infrastructure partnerships.
In March 2025, Copper formed an alliance with Figment to facilitate institutional staking across networks such as Ethereum, Solana, and Polkadot. This collaboration combined Figment’s staking infrastructure with Copper’s custody services, thus allowing institutional clients to stake assets held on the platform.
A month later, Copper broadened its staking capabilities through another partnership with P2P.org, integrating Copper’s custody and prime services with P2P.org’s staking framework and rebalancing technology for institutional users across diverse blockchain networks.
These collaborations built on Copper’s previous custody integrations with individual networks, such as Hedera and Mina, where staking was offered alongside institutional asset storage.
The launch in the US now categorizes these services under a domestically regulated entity, with Copper listing staking alongside custody, financing, and OTC services through Copper Markets (US).
US qualified custody options continue to grow
Copper’s registration occurs amid a broader trend, as numerous digital asset firms are seeking regulated custody frameworks in the United States via broker-dealers, state trust companies, and federally supervised trust banks.
In July, Circle secured final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Circle National Trust, a federally supervised trust bank. Circle indicated that this institution would initially offer digital asset custody for itself and its affiliates, with a business plan that also provides for custody services to a limited number of institutional clients.
This approval followed condition-based OCC decisions in December 2025 that involved several other digital asset firms, including Ripple, Paxos, BitGo, and Fidelity Digital Assets.
In May, Kraken’s parent firm, Payward, took a different approach by applying to the OCC for a national trust charter for Payward National Trust Company. This proposed entity aims to offer federally regulated digital asset custody to institutional clients without accepting deposits or participating in traditional lending.
At the SEC level, the regulator has discussed which entities investment advisers can utilize for crypto custody. In September 2025, the SEC’s Division of Investment Management released a no-action letter allowing advisers, under specific conditions, to use certain state-chartered trust companies as custodians according to federal investment laws.
Rather than pursuing those avenues, Copper has established its recent US presence through a fully registered broker-dealer model. FINRA records confirm that personnel associated with Copper Markets were registered in 2026, including the head of revenue for the Americas, the compliance director, and other financial and operations staff.
