Copper CEO Amar Kuchinad has left the crypto custody company four months into a sale process that reportedly values the firm at $500 million despite potential offers near $200 million.
Summary
- Kuchinad has departed less than two years after taking over from Copper founder Dmitry Tokarev.
- Cantor Fitzgerald has been marketing the custody company with a reported $500 million price tag.
- Potential buyers have submitted offers near $200 million, according to an earlier report.
- Copper recently appointed Elin Cherry and Sean Bowen to senior compliance and operations roles.
Copper CEO leaves during buyer search
According to a report on Sep. 8, citing two people familiar with the matter, Kuchinad had left Copper while the company continued seeking a buyer. The report did not name a temporary or permanent replacement, disclose the reason for his exit, or say when he completed his final day.
Kuchinad’s departure has come during the fourth month of the sale process. Copper appointed financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald to find potential buyers and market the company at a reported valuation of $500 million, according to people familiar with the process.
The custody firm began exploring a sale by at least May, when the same publication first reported that Cantor was handling the process. Copper had received acquisition interest before appointing the financial firm, although the May report did not identify the interested parties or confirm that any bidder had submitted a formal offer.
By August, potential buyers had emerged, but the reported bids were near $200 million. A transaction at that price would be $300 million below the amount sought by Copper and around 90% below the valuation the business reached during the previous crypto market cycle.
No buyer has been identified publicly, and Copper has not announced a sale agreement. The available reports also do not disclose the number of bidders, the conditions attached to their proposals, or whether Cantor has changed the company’s asking price.
Copper’s ownership has not released financial information showing how it arrived at the $500 million valuation. Without a signed agreement, the offers mentioned in the reports remain part of an ongoing process rather than a completed transaction.
Copper’s valuation has fallen from its 2021 peak
During funding discussions in 2021, Copper sought to raise as much as $500 million at a valuation of about $2.5 billion. The company was valued at more than $2 billion at its height, placing the current reported asking price at less than one-quarter of that level.
Even Copper’s $500 million target represents a steep reduction from its previous valuation. Offers near $200 million would cut the difference further, although neither Copper nor Cantor has publicly confirmed the reported figures.
Founded in 2018, Copper provides custody, collateral management, and settlement services for institutional clients trading digital assets. Its ClearLoop network allows clients to settle trades with participating exchanges while keeping assets under custody rather than moving them onto an exchange before every transaction.
Coinbase, Bitfinex, and Kraken are among the companies listed as ClearLoop clients. By reducing the need to place assets directly on trading venues, the system addresses the counterparty exposure institutions face when transferring funds to an exchange for execution.
Institutional custody remains a contested part of the digital asset industry as banks and crypto-native firms compete for clients. As crypto.news reported in August, Coinbase Custody, BitGo and Fireblocks serve the existing digital asset market, while BNY Mellon, State Street and Standard Chartered have built or acquired infrastructure for institutional tokenization and custody.
The same report noted that Standard Chartered agreed in May to acquire the crypto custody operations of Zodia Custody, a company the bank had helped establish. Unlike Copper’s reported sale effort, that transaction involved a traditional financial institution bringing a specialist custody business into its existing operations.
Growing bank participation gives prospective buyers a clearer commercial reason to consider custody assets while adding competition for independent providers. Copper’s client network and off-exchange settlement system could therefore form part of a bidder’s assessment, though none of the reports have identified the features drawing interest or the reasons bids have remained below the asking price.
Leadership changes continue at Copper
Kuchinad took charge of Copper in October 2024 after founder and former CEO Dmitry Tokarev left the top position. Before joining the company, Kuchinad worked at Goldman Sachs and served as an adviser to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
His SEC experience gave Copper a leader familiar with American financial regulation at a time when custody rules were becoming a central issue for institutional crypto services. However, the sources did not say whether his departure was connected to the sale process, Copper’s valuation, its operations, or any regulatory matter.
Alongside the CEO’s exit, Copper has recently added two executives to its leadership team. The company named Elin Cherry as chief compliance officer and Sean Bowen as chief operating officer, according to announcements published through Copper’s LinkedIn page.
Cherry’s appointment places a new executive over compliance while Copper considers offers, and Bowen takes charge of operations during the same period. Copper has not said whether either executive will assume additional responsibilities following Kuchinad’s departure.
The company also has not disclosed who is leading negotiations with Cantor or whether its board has appointed an interim chief executive. The reports do not provide a deadline for receiving final bids, completing due diligence, or deciding whether to abandon the sale.
U.S. custody market draws more regulated competitors
For U.S. investors and institutions, Copper’s reported sale comes as federally supervised companies expand into digital asset custody. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has granted conditional national trust bank approvals to several crypto firms since December 2025, including Circle, Ripple, Paxos, BitGo and Fidelity Digital Assets.
An Aug. 19 report said OCC digital asset approval activity had increased eightfold under the current administration, according to Comptroller Jonathan Gould. The agency’s proposed GENIUS Act framework also covers custody, reserves, redemptions, risk controls and regulatory examinations for payment stablecoin issuers under its supervision.
Competition is also developing outside the United States. In South Korea, BitGo Korea obtained virtual asset service provider registration from the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit in August, allowing it to develop institutional custody and transfer services.
A separate report on corporate access said Hana Financial Group owns 25% of BitGo Korea, while SK Telecom holds a 10% stake. BitGo had not disclosed a launch date, supported assets, custody fees or named clients at the time of that report.
Copper, meanwhile, has not announced a buyer, accepted an offer or revised its valuation, leaving the Cantor-led sale process open as the company operates without its recently appointed chief executive.
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