October 18, 2023 – Copper.co, one of the industry's leading digital asset custodians, is thrilled to announce further growth of integrated blockchains with Stacks, a network that enables the creation of decentralised applications (dApps) and smart contracts on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. Stacks combines the strength, security, and capital of Bitcoin with the power of smart contracts and is the leading Bitcoin layer. Through this integration, institutional clients gain the ability to safely custody, trade, and leverage Stacking with all existing and future SIP-010 tokens on the Stacks blockchain.

In addition to the integration, Copper is leading the way as the first major custodian to announce support for Stacks' anticipated Nakamoto upgrade and sBTC, a decentralized and 1:1 backed Bitcoin asset expected to launch on the Stacks layer in 2024. Stacks already uses Bitcoin as the secure and robust base layer where all transactions are settled, enabling complex applications and smart contracts. These expected upgrades will take that a step further, allowing for ‘write’ access via sBTC as well as fast block times and 100% Bitcoin finality. Deploying Bitcoin to an L2 is one the biggest steps to unlocking BTC's $525B in capital and taking the chain beyond a simple ‘store of value’.

Copper’s support is another strong indicator of how the movement to build on Bitcoin has continued to gain momentum after Ordinals kicked off renewed interest in Bitcoin scaling solutions. This integration brings additional critical support to innovative companies that are pioneering the Bitcoin ecosystem, including projects like ALEX, Sustainable Bitcoin Protocol, HireVibes, and more.

With the Stacks integration, Copper clients now have access to a wide range of exciting tokens built on the Stacks blockchain. Stacks uses ECDSA signature scheme, therefore any client with ECDSA multichain shard can activate a Stacks wallet.

Dmitry Tokarev, CEO at Copper.co, commented, “Our integration of Stacks not only empowers institutional clients to safely custody and trade a variety of tokens on the Stacks blockchain but also enabled Stacking, which was met with immediate enthusiasm. Within just 24 hours of launching, numerous clients swiftly transferred their STX into Copper and promptly initiated Stacking to earn native Bitcoin directly from the protocol’s consensus mechanism, underscoring the positive reception and trust in our platform and partnership."

Mitchell Cuevas, Director of Activation at the Stacks Foundation, commented “Copper's integration is not just a great unlock for the Stacks ecosystem but also exciting validation for entrepreneurs who are building on Bitcoin. This year has seen renewed innovation within the Bitcoin ecosystem and this is another positive signal about the future of a Bitcoin economy powered by entrepreneurs building applications and services atop the chain. Copper’s award-winning digital asset infrastructure, stellar industry reputation, and impressive client roster give these builders critical support and infrastructure as they look to unleash Bitcoin.”

For media inquiries, please contact:

Copper.co: tom.teodorczuk@h-advisors.global

Stacks: press@stacks.org

About Copper

Since being founded in 2018, Copper, a SOC2 Type 2 certified company with a registration in Switzerland, has been setting the standard for digital assets by offering custody and collateral management of digital assets. Underpinned by multi-award-winning technology, Copper has built the comprehensive and secure products and services required to safely custody and trade cryptocurrencies and other digital assets such as tokens and stablecoins. At the core of Copper’s infrastructure is ClearLoop, which enables clients to trade and settle in near real time across multiple exchanges, while mitigating counterparty risk and increasing capital efficiency. 

About Stacks

Stacks is a Bitcoin Layer for smart contracts; it enables smart contracts and decentralized applications to use Bitcoin as an asset and settle transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain.In December 2022, the sBTC whitepaper was released along with plans for the 2023 Nakamoto Release which will bring faster speeds and transactions backed by 100% of BTC security to the Stacks Layer. ‍The launch of sBTC will unlock Bitcoin as a fully programmable, productive asset for countless use cases. In the Stacks ecosystem, there are currently 30+ companies including a non-profit Stacks Foundation, a developer tooling company Hiro, Xverse, Trust Machines, New Internet Labs, Mechanism, Daemon Technologies, ALEX, Arkadiko etc. — it is a truly decentralized ecosystem.