The Swiss financial regulator FINMA has approved the cryptocurrency custody and trading company Taurus to provide retail investors with blockchain-based shares in unlisted companies, thereby enabling the public access to tokenized securities.
Taurus’ TDX marketplace, backed by Deutsche Bank (DBK), facilitates cryptocurrency transactions in addition to U.S. dollars (USD), Swiss franc (CHF), and Euro (EUR). Many Swiss companies, such as Teylor, a fintech lending company that already collaborates with Taurus to issue tokenized shares for professional investors, Investis, la Mobilière, Qoqa, Structured Commodity & Corporate Finance (SCCF), Swissroc, and others, have selected TDX to issue shares.
The concept of tokenization is currently quite popular, whether it is because Wall Street heavyweights like JPMorgan are trying to simplify how they trade in financial assets, or because local innovators like Taurus are trying to democratise technology.
According to Lamine Brahimi, a co-founder of Taurus, “our TDX marketplace had one thing missing because it was only authorised for professional or qualified investors.” We now have permission from FINMA to make it available to regular investors as well. We believe that purchasing a company’s shares ought to be just as simple as purchasing an Amazon book.
Retail investors can engage in secondary markets as well as capital raises for unlisted companies in a primary market context.
“As of today, TDX is targeted at Swiss residents but may be open to additional investors provided they meet compliance requirements, depending on the trading segment and the issuer,” Brahimi stated.