In a landmark move for digital finance, Taurus SA, a firm backed by Deutsche Bank, has received approval from Switzerland's financial regulator, FINMA, to offer tokenized securities to retail investors via its TDX marketplace. Lamine Brahimi, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Taurus, sat down with CryptoSlate to discuss the regulatory hurdles overcome and the profound impact of this development.
Since its inception in April 2018, Taurus has focused on building institutional-grade technology and processes. Demonstrating robust security, stringent anti-money laundering (AML) protocols, and comprehensive investor protection were critical for securing approval. This ensures that access, issuance, and trading of digital securities on TDX are both secure and compliant for all participants.
Brahimi envisions a future where tokenization makes purchasing shares in a company as simple as buying a book online. He believes that digitizing private markets can fundamentally transform the finance industry. However, significant barriers remain, such as the adoption of global tokenization standards, the development of regulated secondary markets, and the creation of large-scale, multi-currency on-chain settlement solutions. Taurus is addressing these challenges through strategic initiatives, including chairing the Technical Committee of the Capital Markets & Technology Association (CMTA) in Switzerland, launching the TDX marketplace, and helping clients launch their digital asset businesses globally.
Strategic partnerships with prominent banks like Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, and AMINA Bank have been instrumental to Taurus's success. These collaborations focus on providing future-proof technology and a comprehensive platform capable of managing a diverse range of digital assets. Brahimi highlights the importance of a full technology stack and strong client demand for innovative digital asset products. Despite the hype around other technologies, the firm has found that regulatory clarity and client interest in tokenized assets remain the primary drivers, with 80% of clients using Taurus’s tokenization platform alongside its custody solutions.
Looking ahead, Brahimi foresees tokenization becoming more mainstream as regulatory frameworks solidify and institutional adoption accelerates.
Taurus received approval from FINMA to offer tokenized securities to retail investors through the TDX marketplace. Can you walk us through the regulatory challenges you faced and how Taurus navigated the approval process? What impact do you think this development will have on democratizing access to these assets?
Since its inception in April 2018, Taurus has focused on developing a robust organization with institutional-grade technology and processes. The challenges were significant, and the standards were exceptionally high. We needed to demonstrate to the regulator and our auditors that Taurus met stringent criteria in: security and reliability, governance, anti-money laundering measures, and investor protection.
This approval now allows retail, professional, and institutional investors to access, issue, and trade the full spectrum of digital securities listed on TDX in a secure and compliant manner.
You've spoken about a vision of making it as simple to buy a share of a company as it is to order a book on Amazon. Can you expand on the potential impact of tokenization on traditional capital markets? What are the key barriers to widespread adoption, and how is Taurus working to overcome them?
Taurus’s core belief is that private markets—private equity, private debt, and other real asset classes—should be digitized to make the digital asset economy a multi-trillion-dollar industry. Why? Because their processes are still largely paper-based, unlike public markets which are already electronic.
Innovation is accelerating, but the main barriers to widespread adoption I see are: (i) the adoption of global tokenization standards, (ii) the development of regulated secondary markets, (iii) mega custodians entering the space, and (iv) large-scale tokenized settlement solutions beyond just USD, encompassing EUR, CHF, GBP, etc., to support both the securities leg and the settlement leg on-chain.
We have taken modest but concrete actions to address these challenges. Among them, Taurus chairs the Technical Committee (led by Jean-Philippe Aumasson) of the Capital Markets & Technology Association (CMTA) in Switzerland. This group is in charge of defining standards for tokenization (CMTAT) and custody to help foster distributed ledger technology adoption. We also launched TDX, one of the first regulated marketplaces globally, to bring liquidity to tokenized securities. We are also serving some of our largest clients in launching their digital asset strategy across the globe.
Taurus has formed strategic partnerships with several prominent banks, including Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, and AMINA Bank. What motivated these collaborations, and what challenges have you faced in integrating traditional finance with crypto? How do you envision these partnerships evolving in the future?
When banks consider entering the digital asset space, they often evaluate two main dimensions:
Despite market hype, the future looks solid as regulation is increasingly taking shape in major financial centers and client demand for sophisticated digital asset products is strong. 80% of our clients are now using our tokenization platform in addition to our custody solution. We are working on closing transactions in the areas of tokenized equity, trading, and debt. Stay tuned.
You have a unique vantage point, having worked in both traditional finance and the crypto industry. What motivated your transition into the crypto space, and how has your experience in traditional finance influenced your approach at Taurus?
I was educated as an engineer at EPFL in Switzerland. I switched to finance, but it happened that I was leading the digital transformation of the bank I served prior to founding Taurus, so I was always close to what was new in financial markets. To make a long story short, one day in 2016, I was asked to make a presentation about blockchain and Bitcoin to some clients, and that was a game-changer.
My co-founders and I always believed that distributed ledger technologies would increasingly and positively impact our economy, starting with capital markets whose processes were designed decades ago. We also believed that eventually, traditional assets and digital assets would be managed ubiquitously.
That’s why we officially launched Taurus in 2018. The available technology did not meet our needs nor those of banks, which we knew very well. So, we started building it from the ground up—and with a lot of hard work and some luck, we made a name for ourselves in the industry.
Taurus has been at the forefront of tokenization efforts, working with various Swiss companies to tokenize their assets. Can you share some success stories or challenges you've encountered in this process? How do you envision the tokenization landscape evolving in the coming years?
There are many. Some include private equity transactions that we tokenized end-to-end with Orbit Capital and SCCF, Luxembourg-based and Swiss-based private equity experts.
Another example is our work with Cité Gestion, which was the first private bank in the world to tokenize its shares. Another success story is our project with Qoqa, a community-based e-commerce company with nearly 1 million clients, where we helped them raise CHF 1 million in just 22 minutes for their community-owned rocket. We helped Qoqa issue equity tokens, representing shares in the company, and helped their community members become direct stakeholders in the venture.
Looking ahead, we envision tokenization becoming mainstream in the private capital markets. As regulatory frameworks solidify and institutional adoption increases, we expect to see a surge in tokenized real-world assets. This will lead to greater liquidity, lower entry barriers, and more efficient trading of traditionally illiquid assets. Our partnerships with companies like Swissroc in real estate and SCCF in private equity are just the beginning. I look forward to our partnerships with mega custodians—you will soon see more tokenized assets in the market and on TDX.
Lamine Brahimi is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Taurus SA, a company specializing in digital asset infrastructure.
