Copper Launches Support For Internet Computer’s ICRC and SNS Tokens

Copper, an institutional digital asset custodian servicing several major exchanges, is deepening its support for the Internet Computer Protocol ecosystem.

On July 19, Copper launched support for Chain-key BTC (ckBTC), a Bitcoin token facilitating bridgeless transfers between the Internet Computer Protocol and Bitcoin networks.

The ckBTC integration was enabled by Copper offering clients access to Internet Computer’s Service Nervous System (SNS) and Internet Computer Request for Comments (ICRC) token standards. SNS enables token holders to participate in on-chain governance, while ICRCs enable the creation of fungible and non-fungible tokens on Internet Computer.

“Copper supporting Internet Computer’s ICRC token standard is a major win for ecosystem participants such as market makers, traders, and crypto funds,” said Paul Meesuen, the vice president of partnerships at Dfinity Foundation. “This will increase liquidity, accessibility, and institutional adoption, benefiting all projects building tokenized business models on the Internet Computer Protocol.”

The launch builds on a previous partnership between Copper and the Dfinity Foundation, a major contributor to Internet Computer Protocol, which enabled Copper clients to custody and stake ICP tokens.

Copper provides custody to several popular centralized exchanges, including Bybit, Derebit, BitMEX, and Bitfinex. As such, the platforms can now support Internet Computer’s Chain-key, ICRC, and SNS tokens.

ICP’s price jumped 33% over the past seven days, according to CoinGecko.

Cross-chain interoperability

The move comes as Internet Computer is increasingly seeking to position itself as providing infrastructure serving cross-chain utility.

Internet Computer describes its chain-key tokens as enabling direct interoperability with Bitcoin, Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible networks, and soon Solana. The project emphasized that ICP smart contracts can also read from and write to different chains, enabling developers to write smart contracts that interact across multiple networks.

Copper said it also plans to integrate support for ckETH and ckUSD — Chain-key tokens representing Ethereum and USD Coin — in the future.

In April, Omnity, an Internet Computer-based “omnichain interoperability protocol,” integrated support for Runes, the popular fungible tokens standard on Bitcoin. Omnity claimed to be the first protocol to launch cross-chain functionality for Runes.

Related: DFINITY’s Dominic Williams Says Enterprises Will Be Key for ICP’s Growth