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The cryptocurrency firm chaired by former UK chancellor Lord Philip Hammond hosted a party where guests were served sushi off two scantily clad models, raising new questions about the culture of the industry.
Copper, which stores digital assets for customers, held the private party last week at the five-star Mandrake hotel in London after a large crypto industry conference.
In a dining room with red-lacquered walls, two people who appeared to be wearing thin bodysuits lay on a long table with plates of sushi on their partially naked bodies, according to a photo of the event seen by the Financial Times.
“Transcend the ordinary at the Copper experience,” read an invitation for the after-party, adding: “Attendees will be able to entertain and explore all five senses.”
A person close to Copper said the models were a man and woman and were “wearing swimming costumes”, adding that it was “a lot of razzle dazzle . . . more performative art rather than anything seedy”. Hammond did not attend, the person added.
The incident comes as crypto companies celebrate bitcoin recently hitting record highs of more than $70,000, fuelling a resurgence of optimism in an industry that has been plagued by scandals, a lack of governance and inappropriate behaviour.
So-called “crypto bros” have permeated the industry since its inception, with men dominating the biggest companies and often loudly purveying their beliefs. The crypto bro culture has been criticised for contributing to governance failings, including at collapsed exchange FTX.
Copper enables hedge funds, asset managers and other institutions to securely hold and trade digital assets on exchanges.
“As part of our sponsorship of the Digital Assets Summit 2024, we jointly hosted an after-party held at the Mandrake Hotel,” Copper said, adding that the event “was organised by a third-party event planner and open to all delegates as part of the conference”. Copper did not specify who the joint after-party host was.
Copper was founded in 2018 in London by Dmitry Tokarev, former chief technology officer at wealth manager Dolfin Financial, which collapsed in 2021 after a Financial Conduct Authority probe.
Copper describes itself as “committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives and skills”, adding that “the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be”.
Hammond, who had been an adviser to Copper, was made chair in 2023 following a fundraising that valued the company at $2bn. He holds a “small stake” in the group.
The Tory peer used his government links to set up introductions for Copper in 2021, before he formally joined the company, during a period in which politicians were typically barred from lobbying, the Financial Times previously reported.
Serving sushi off naked or semi-clad bodies has in recent decades been promoted in western nations as an exotic Japanese cultural experience, with nyotaimori dinners on offer from Riga to Las Vegas.
However, the practice is far from mainstream even in Japan’s sprawling erotic entertainment sector.
Current and former Copper employees can be seen in the photo of the after- party.
A senior Copper employee said having scantily clad people was “not the typical party set-up”. “Crypto is getting a lot more civilised, so that’s not really the style.”
Copper has sought and so far failed to gain regulatory approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, and was forced to register in Switzerland last year instead.
Barclays, British billionaire hedge fund manager Alan Howard and European venture capital firms including Dawn Capital and Target Global are investors in the company. Alan Howard declined to comment. The other investors did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“We set the institutional standards for digital assets,” the company says on its LinkedIn page.
Additional reporting by Mure Dickie