Barclays May Buy Stakes in Crypto Firm Copper
Barclays is reportedly buying a stake in crypto company Copper, which counts former British Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond as an investor.
According to unnamed sources, the lender will join a Copper funding round and invest “a few million” dollars, Bloomberg reported on Sunday (July 24). Copper’s services include custody, prime broking and settlement for institutional investors in crypto assets.
Neither Barclays nor Copper responded to a request for comment from PYMNTS.
All this comes as crypto has had a challenging year, rocked by major price drops, coin collapses and bankruptcies. In addition, large risk assets have generally declined due to the general volatility of the economy.
PYMNTS wrote that funding for private crypto companies has also seen a decline. Startups have also felt the effects of various economic factors that have hit crypto, public stocks and venture capital hard.
Read more: Crypto’s decline drags down venture capital funding
The sector had previously seemed somewhat bulletproof, driven by hype. Crypto-related startups had roughly $9.85 billion in venture funding as of the first quarter, though this was mainly due to the length of time it takes to complete venture capital deals.
According to PitchBook FinTech analyst Robert Le, the deals were underway in November and December, but the market was already slowing down then.
Now, things change in the second quarter, with $6.76 billion going to crypto companies for the three months ending in June. That’s the lowest level in a year, and CoinFund’s managing partner David Pakman said there could be dire days ahead with more layoffs and lower valuations.
“What you’re seeing now is that seed ratings are down about 20%, Series A ratings are down about 50%, and then Series B and beyond are down about 70%,” Pakman said earlier this month, adding that he the companies think he should start having enough money to withstand as much as two years of hardship.
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NEW PYMNTS SURVEY FINDS 3 IN 4 CONSUMERS WITH STRONG DEMAND FOR SUPER APPS
About: The findings of PYMNTS’ new study, “The Super App Shift: How Consumers Want To Save, Shop And Spend In The Connected Economy”, a collaboration with PayPal, analyzed the responses of 9,904 consumers in Australia, Germany, the UK and the US and showed strong demand for a single multi-functional super app instead of using dozens of individuals.
