Deutsche Bank taps Taurus for global crypto custody services

Deutsche Bank is set to offer customers cryptocurrency custody options through a partnership with cryptocurrency infrastructure platform Taurus.

The German bank was one of a handful of companies to invest in a $65 million Series B fundraising round for Taurus in February 2023. The company offers enterprise-grade infrastructure to issue, manage custody and trade cryptocurrencies, tokenized assets, nonfungible tokens and other digital assets. 

According to Taurus co-founder Lamine Brahimi, the partnership underwent a “thorough and very detailed” due diligence process before the German bank decided to use its infrastructure services:

“It started end of 2021 and ended somewhere in 2022. We won the deal a couple of quarters ago.”

As Cointelegraph previously reported, Deutsche Bank has been brewing plans to offer cryptocurrency custody and trading services to its clients over the past three years. The bank most recently applied for a digital asset custody license from Germany’s financial regulator, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, in June 2023 as it continues plans to offer its customers access to cryptocurrency markets and assets.

Brahimi confirmed that the agreement is global in scope, with Taurus providing custody and tokenization technology in line with local regulatory requirements.

Announcing the partnership, Deutsche Bank global securities services head Paul Maley said the cryptocurrency space is expected to grow to trillions of dollars in assets and will likely become a priority for investors and institutions.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank’s asset management arm, DWS Group, had reportedly been in discussions to invest in two different German-based cryptocurrency firms in February 2023 — crypto exchange-traded product provider Deutsche Digital Assets and market maker platform Tradias.

Deutsche Bank Singapore and Memento Blockchain recently completed a proof-of-concept called Project DAMA (Digital Assets Management Access), which allows for the management of digital funds in tokenized securities.

Founded in Switzerland in 2018, Taurus’s Series B round was led by Credit Suisse and included the likes of Deutsche Bank alongside Arab Bank Switzerland, indicating major interest from traditional finance banks.

The announcement of its Series B round also clearly outlined Taurus’ aim to serve “tier 1” banks in Europe. Brahimi also told Cointelegraph that the platform serves close to 30 banks, with most deals going “beyond cryptocurrencies” to include the tokenization of equity, debt and other products.

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