Copper appoints new CEO to focus on strengthening US presence

Crypto custody firm Copper has appointed a new chief executive as it looks to double its presence in the US, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi.

Crypto custody and collateral management center Copper has announced the appointment of Amar Kuchinad as its new global CEO, aiming to strengthen its corporate approach and expand its presence in the US, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi.

We are excited to announce that Amar Kuchinad has been appointed as Copper’s new Global CEO, taking over from Copper founder Dmitry Tokarev.

Over the past seven years, @tokarev_d He not only built Copper from the ground up, but also set a high standard for innovation… pic.twitter.com/iEbbWMQ2zu

— Copper.co (@CopperHQ) 14 October 2024

Kuchinad, who replaces founder Dmitry Tokarev, will lead the company’s growth strategy and continue its “enterprise-first approach to accelerate expansion in core markets,” Copper said in a blog announcement.

“Strengthening Copper’s presence in the US while leveraging recent regulatory milestones in Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi will be central to this approach.”

Copper

According to the blog announcement, Tokarev will continue his duties as founding director and strategic shareholder after seven years as CEO. Before Copper, Kuchinad served as a managing director at Goldman Sachs and a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He also founded Electronifie, which developed an SEC-registered alternative trading platform.

In his new role, Kuchinad will oversee the company’s custody and trading network, ClearLoop, which is said to process 20 million transactions every month and has a total notional value of $100 billion.

The leadership change comes at a time when Copper is under increased scrutiny following investigations that revealed links to sanctioned individuals. A report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists highlighted the transfer of over $4.2 million in cryptocurrency to Jonatan Zimenkov, a Russian citizen with ties to an arms trading network. Although the report stated that Copper did not violate regulations during the transactions, questions were raised about the company’s compliance practices at the time.

In March 2022, Tokarev published a press release on Copper’s website condemning the Kremlin’s military offensive against Ukraine, adding: “The Russian government does not speak for every Russian. “They don’t even speak for the majority of them.”