Crypto custody firm Copper on Wednesday launched a new digital assets brokerage platform for institutional trading in the United Arab Emirates.

Called Copper Securities, the platform combines a suite of blockchain-based financial and custodial services, with securities financing and payments applications to follow in the next 12 months. According to a press release, the new platform will be integrated with Copper's custodial partners, providing access to financial instruments in over 90 markets across the globe.

The new platform offers institutional investors access to tokenized securities, allowing traders to leverage blockchain technology and smart contracts to manage traditional instruments such as equities.

Copper Securities said that it seeks to address inefficiencies and high operating costs in traditional market infrastructure. "Clients using Copper’s ecosystem will benefit from automated processing of corporate actions, settlements, top-ups, and rebalances," the firm added.

Acquisition of UAE-based digital securities firm

Copper acquired UAE-based blockchain brokerage firm called Securrency Capital earlier this month. The acquisition allows the firm to offer digital securities trading in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), via its new Copper Securities platform.

"With the acquisition of Securrency Capital, I’m proud to announce that Copper is launching in the United Arab Emirates. This strategic move builds on our vision of transforming capital markets infrastructure by leveraging the power of blockchain technology and tokenization," Copper.co CEO Dmitry Tokarev said.

"We believe that this will create a more transparent, efficient, and accessible financial system for institutional investors," he added.