Former British chancellor lands cryptocurrency job

Phillip Hammond, the former chancellor and foreign secretary of the United Kingdom, has joined cryptocurrency trading firm Copper.co as an advisor. Lord Hammond is an advocate of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and will promote Copper as well as UK leadership in the private digital asset sector. 

The Former British chancellor will take up an advisory role for Copper, a cryptocurrency trading company founded in 2018. The firm recently let it be known that it had plans to expand into the US and Asia. It also received $75 million in investment from British hedge fund manager Alan Howard, and two venture capital firms. 

Hammond was optimistic about Copper, saying that it was a “true pioneer” of crypto and digital asset investment technology. 

“the really exciting opportunity lies in the application of this technology to revolutionise the way financial services are delivered. If we can bring together the best of Britain – entrepreneurs, industry, government, and regulators – to create and enable a blockchain-based ecosystem for financial services, we will secure the UK’s global leadership in this field for decades ahead.” 

The CEO of Copper, Dmitry Tokarev, spoke of his company’s acquisition of the services of Lord Hammond: 

“We would like to drive growth in our client base within a regulatory framework which will allow us to thrive globally from our London headquarters. With Lord Hammond’s expertise adding to the strength of our team, we look forward to growing Copper and further enhancing the UK’s digital asset technology offering.” 

To have such an important luminary from the fiat monetary system who has so much understanding of the potential for cryptocurrency assets is rather unusual in the current suspicion-filled, and generally anti-crypto environment of governments, central banks and regulators. 

When he was chancellor, Hammond had called for “light touch” regulation for cryptocurrencies. He said that the Bank of England was leading the other central banks in looking into the possibilities of bitcoin. He always maintained that it was imperative to not over-regulate cryptocurrencies and thereby impede the technical progress of blockchain technology. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.