European investment banking giant Deutsche Bank has signed a global partnership agreement with digital asset technology provider Taurus to use its services to establish digital asset custody and tokenization services.
The partnership is the result “of a thorough and detailed selection and due diligence process,” said Lamine Brahimi, co-founder of Taurus, in a press release. The startup will be helping the bank in its digital assets journey.
Deutsche Bank invested in Taurus’s mammoth $65 million Series B fundraise earlier this year. The raise saw participation from other banking players, including Arab Bank Switzerland, Pictet Group and Credit Suisse. Taurus said it is the preferred platform for “tier 1 banks”, and it already works with more than 25 financial institutions.
The startup, which was founded in 2018, offers enterprises the infrastructure to issue, custody and trade digital assets such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), digital currencies and tokenized assets.
“As the digital asset space is expected to encompass trillions of dollars of assets, it’s bound to be seen as one of the priorities for investors and corporations alike. As such, custodians must start adapting to support their clients,” said Paul Maley, global head of securities services at Deutsche Bank, in the release.
The German bank recently applied for a digital custody license with BaFin, Germany’s securities regulator, according to a report from Bloomberg. This comes as the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets regulation (MiCA) is approved, providing European firms with a framework on how digital assets will be regulated.
Several other banking giants are offering crypto custody services, including Standard Chartered and BNY Mellon. Many leading financial institutions such as BlackRock, Fidelity and Franklin Templeton are also entering the race to gain approval for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US.
Deutsche Bank has been eyeing introducing a crypto custody service since 2020.
