BitGo and Copper are integrating their respective in-custody settlement networks, allowing users to trade on a growing list of major exchanges without their assets leaving the protected confines of cold storage.
The network effect of BitGo’s cold storage settlement system and Copper’s ClearLoop comprises exchanges like Bybit, OKX, Powertrade, Bitget, Gate.io, Deribit, BIT, Bitfinex and Bitstamp. Users will have access to exchanges like Bybit, OKX, Powertrade, Bitget, Gate.io, Deribit, BIT, Bitfinex, and Bitstamp thanks to the integration of qualified custodian BitGo’s Go Network with Copper’s famous ClearLoop system.
“We asked the question: do we want to win versus traditional finance?” said Matthew Ballensweig, who leads BitGo’s Go Network. “Can the crypto guys band together to create a true institutional-grade product that has real market scale, as opposed to waiting for Goldman or Fidelity to build out the custody and connectivity infrastructure for the next wave of capital waiting to come into this space.”
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Consolidation in custody to give corporations and institutions off-exchange trading of crypto directly from cold storage makes a lot of sense, especially in light of the failure of organizations like FTX. All that has been missing is the scale and network effect, as well as controlled custody. It is also potentially more efficient for exchanges with fewer interfaces with various custodians.
It’s a good fit for the two companies. BitGo, a US-based certified custodian, recently announced that it had obtained a crypto custody license from German financial regulator BaFin. Copper shut down its enterprise custody business earlier this year to focus on its ClearLoop settlement network, which debuted in 2020 and serves hundreds of institutional clients.
The expansion of the firms’ existing off-exchange settlement networks is now geared at non-US users, but Ballensweig indicated in an interview that the next stage will be to roll it out in the US.
“As we add exchanges in the U.S. – for instance, we’re working with Bitstamp, and we’re talking to a host of other U.S.-based exchanges – our plan is to integrate those,” Ballensweig said. “So that means we can have basically two avenues: one for offshore, that kind of goes through Copper’s ClearLoop API, and hits the non-U.S. exchanges, and then one avenue natively through BitGo that touches the US exchanges.”
