Ben Strack

A crypto exchange named a new CEO and a tokenization-focused firm picked a leader for its new office in Canada.&nbsp;



Gracy Chen is set to replace Sandra Lou as Bitget’s chief executive, the company said Tuesday.&nbsp;



Chen had joined Bitget as a managing director in 2022 and was tasked with leading the company’s growth strategies.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The crypto exchange launched a crypto-backed credit card last year usable wherever Visa is accepted and is “developing more services to support this integration,” Chen noted in a <a href="https://www.bitget.com/blog/articles/a-letter-from-bitget-ceo">letter</a>.&nbsp;



Investing in the crypto ecosystem via the exchange’s Web3 Fund and EmpowerX Fund also remains “a key long-term focus,” she added.



Read more from our opinion section: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-custodians-tradfi-learning">Crypto custodians should learn from TradFi&nbsp;</a>



Meanwhile, crypto infrastructure firm <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/taurus">Taurus</a> opened its first North America office in Vancouver, Canada.&nbsp;



Andrew Maledy — previously an engineering manager at Procore Technologies — is set to lead the office as the company links up with regional partners and clients of its custody and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/tokenization">tokenization</a> technology.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/credit-suisse-taurus-deal">Taurus raised $65 million</a> in a February funding round led by Credit Suisse. Deutsche Bank took part in that round too — <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/deutsche-bank-crypto-custody-tokenization">linking up with Taurus</a> in September to build out digital asset custody and tokenization services.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The company gained approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) in January to open its digital assets marketplace to retail clients.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/taurus-custody-tokenization-platforms">Tokenization top of mind for Taurus in 2024 after FINMA approval</a>



Taurus now has eight offices on three continents, as it has also recently expanded to Zurich, London, Paris, Frankfurt and Dubai.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Other notable hires</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>The foundation behind the SKALE modular blockchain — designed for gas-less Ethereum scaling — named Andrew Saunders as its first chief marketing and growth officer.</li>



<li>Ronak Jethava is <a href="https://x.com/RonakTwts/status/1792925582524563952">now</a> head of ecosystem marketing at Startale Labs.</li>
</ul>



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Custody

Crypto Hiring: Crypto exchange names new CEO; Tokenization-focused firm expands

A crypto infrastructure firm backed by Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank looks to advance a sector trend following its recent approval from Switzerland&#8217;s financial regulator.



Taurus co-founder Lamine Brahimi told Blockworks in an interview that the firm is focused on building out its custody and tokenization platforms in 2024 amid the momentum around bringing real-world assets to the blockchain.



Buying a private company’s equity or debt should be as easy as purchasing a book on Amazon, he said.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/real-world-assets-tradfi-defi-tokenization">TradFi, DeFi convergence continues through tokenizing real-world assets</a>



Taurus raised $65 million in a February 2023 round led by Credit Suisse. German finance giant Deutsche Bank, which has since signaled it was <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/deutsche-bank-crypto-custody-tokenization">set to establish crypto custody and tokenization services</a> with Taurus’ help, also participated.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/credit-suisse-taurus-deal">‘Landmark Transactions’ to come after Credit Suisse deal, Taurus exec says</a>



Earlier this week, the crypto-focused company secured approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). The designation opens up its digital assets marketplace TDX to retail clients, the company noted.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/taurus">Taurus</a> has a regulated financial services business, as well as a technology arm. On the tech side, the firm boasts about 30 banks as clients, Brahimi noted.&nbsp;



“Controlling the technology gives us a strategic advantage, and we have all the capabilities internally to service any type of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/tokenization">tokenized</a> assets for all types of clients on multiple blockchains,” Brahimi said.



Following the FINMA approval, Taurus said it is admitting new tokenized assets from various Swiss companies. These include the real estate groups Investis and Swissroc, as well as the insurance firm La Mobilière.



Keep reading for excerpts from Blockworks’ interview with Brahimi.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Blockworks: What types of clients are using Taurus’s TDX marketplace?



Brahimi: TDX has been designed for buy-side investors and traders, including retail clients and banks willing to access tokenized private markets. It is also made for sell-side issuers, such as [small and medium enterprises] and different asset owners looking to digitize assets.



Blockworks: Which entities do you expect to dip their toe in here?&nbsp;



Brahimi: At the moment, we focus on two main segments. The first one consists of our banking clients. 80% of them are already using Taurus’ tokenization platform; they have a vested interest to tokenize and admit them on TDX. Several deals on fixed income, alternative assets and art have been made, or are ongoing.



The second one consists of renowned Swiss issuers with revenues between $5 million and $50 million. Many have already selected TDX as a preferred venue to trade their digital securities, including Investis Group, La Mobilière, Qoqa, SCCF, Swissroc and Teylor. We have tokenized real estate projects, equity including participation certificates and debt instruments.



Blockworks: What will Taurus be most focused on in 2024?&nbsp;



Brahimi: In our infrastructure business, Taurus will continue to build its custody and tokenization platforms and expand internationally. We have opened offices in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Dubai in 2023 and are planning to open others in 2024 to be closer to our clients.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/taurus-europe-mica-deutsche-bank-crypto-infrastructure">Taurus expands Europe footprint after Deutsche Bank link-up</a>



On the financial services side, we will propose multiple deals in fixed income, equity and art to our clients, and we plan to deliver a new app. We hope we can convince dozens of new issuers by the end of this year.&nbsp;



Blockworks: Where does the firm believe the biggest opportunities lie in the tokenization space? Brahimi: We see the biggest opportunities in private markets. It should be as easy to buy a private company security — equity or debt&nbsp;— as it is to buy a book on Amazon. The regulation is ready in several key financial centers, and the technology is there too.&nbsp;



Our deep conviction is that the real opportunities will burgeon when the cash side is tokenized. We are working on multiple tokenized deposits projects with several of our clients.



Blockworks: We saw Taurus partner with Deutsche Bank last year. What other big financial institutions might the company be working with, or expect to in the future?



Brahimi: We work with multiple systemic banks and have some big announcements planned for 2024.&nbsp;



This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.



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investors

Tokenization top of mind for Taurus in 2024 after FINMA approval

Taurus, a crypto infrastructure provider that recently partnered with Deutsche Bank, is bolstering its presence in Europe.



Switzerland-based Taurus, which offers infrastructure to issue, custody and trade crypto, tokenized assets and NFTs, is opening offices in London and Paris. The firm says it expects more of the region’s banks to wade into the crypto space as the regulatory environment becomes more clear.&nbsp;



The expansion is part of a bid to better serve institutions that will soon have to comply with the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA). The European Union Parliament <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/eu-parliament-passes-mica-vote?nocache">passed the framework in April</a>, with implementation expected next year.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/mica-could-get-crypto-banked">EU’s MiCA framework could help crypto firms get banked</a>



Jürgen Hofbauer, previously Taurus’s global head of strategic partnerships, will lead the London office. He spent more than 10 years at Bank of America, where he served as head of sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.



Arnaud Fleisher will lead the company’s growth out of Paris. Fleisher previously held sales leadership positions at companies including software giant SAP.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/credit-suisse-taurus-deal">Taurus raised $65 million</a> in a February funding round led by Credit Suisse. Deutsche Bank also took part in that round, and the German megabank <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/deutsche-bank-crypto-custody-tokenization">linked up with Taurus</a> last month to build out digital asset custody and tokenization services.&nbsp;



German-based Deutsche Bank said the Taurus partnership would allow it to initially offer custody of “selected cryptocurrencies and some stablecoins” for corporate and institutional clients, as well as the ability to tokenize traditional financial securities.



Aside from Deutsche Bank, Taurus’ European clients include <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/caceis-registers-france-dasp">CACEIS</a>, Credit Suisse, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/french-bank-delubac-cie-first-to-offer-regulated-digital-asset-services">Banque Delubac</a> and Groupe Pernod Ricard, Hofbauer told Blockworks.&nbsp;



The firm is set to announce new large partnerships soon with systemic banks across all regions, including the US and Asia.



&#8220;We follow our clients’ footprint to stay close to them and add local expertise,” Hofbauer said. “We are looking to expand in selected financial centers in the Americas, Middle East and Asia regions. We will make announcements soon.&#8221;



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Deutsche Bank

Taurus expands Europe footprint after Deutsche Bank link-up

Another traditional finance giant is wading into the crypto space.



Deutsche Bank is set to establish digital asset custody and tokenization services via a new partnership with Switzerland-based Taurus — a firm that offers infrastructure to issue, custody and trade crypto, tokenized assets and NFTs.&nbsp;



“The market has evolved to an extent where we see partnership opportunities key to developing the products and services that our clients are demanding,” Paul Maley, head of Deutsche Bank’s securities services, told Blockworks in an email.&nbsp;



Deutsche Bank looks to initially offer custody of “selected cryptocurrencies and some stablecoins” for corporate and institutional clients in the German company’s “home market regions,” the executive added — though he did not name specific assets.



On the tokenization front, the firm aims to first tokenize traditional financial securities.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/real-world-assets-tradfi-defi-tokenization">TradFi, DeFi convergence continues through tokenizing real-world assets</a>



BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said last year that the tokenization of securities is “<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blackrock-ceo-still-in-crypto-for-the-tech-despite-ftx-scandal">the next generation for markets</a>.” TradFi firms such as <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/jpmorgan-trade-on-public-blockchain-monumental-step-for-defi">JPMorgan</a>, <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230110005308/en/Goldman-Sachs%E2%80%99-Tokenization-Platform-GS-DAP%E2%84%A2-Leveraging-Daml-Goes-Live">Goldman Sachs</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stablecoin-with-yield-franklin-templeton">Franklin Templeton</a> have been busy in recent years and months exploring the tokenization space.



“We expect to see more and more traditional assets and cash payments eventually come on-chain,” Maley said. “Positioning ourselves for the future is our primary focus and we are working on a select number of projects to develop our capabilities.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A&nbsp; journey into the space&nbsp;</h2>



Deutsche Bank participated in <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/credit-suisse-taurus-deal">Taurus’ $65 million funding round</a> in February — a fundraise led by fellow traditional financial giant Credit Suisse.&nbsp;



Taurus co-founder Lamine Brahimi told Blockworks at the time that Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank have integrated its tech, or planned to — noting there would be “landmark transactions” in the coming months.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Teaming up with Taurus also comes after <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/deutsche-bank-crypto-custody-license-germany">Deutsche Bank applied to Germany’s financial regulator</a> in June to provide custody services for cryptocurrencies.



The latest partnership reflects “a natural extension” of Deutsche Bank initiatives laid out in a December 2020 <a href="https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Cryptocurrency_Uses_Cases_2020.pdf">report</a> by the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Cryptocurrencies. the company noted in a Thursday news release.



Deutsche Bank said its aim at the time was to create a custody platform for institutional clients that would “introduce a secure connected bridge between digital assets and a customer’s traditional banking services.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



The bank planned to manage various digital assets and fiat holdings on one platform and allow clients to access those assets via “an institutional-grade hot [or] cold storage solution with insurance-grade protection.”



“We are pleased to implement this global partnership with Deutsche Bank and look forward to supporting the bank in launching digital assets and DLT-based products and services across several booking centers,” Brahimi said in a Thursday statement.&nbsp;



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crypto custody

Financial giant Deutsche Bank eyes crypto custody, tokenization

Bessie Liu

Cryptocurrency and Web3 companies locked down a cumulative $185 million this week — down from a total of $213 million last week.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The majority of companies raising over the last seven days were rustling up pre-seed or seed funding. Many of the startups are building out Web3’s infrastructure.&nbsp;



Here are the highlights of some of the most notable funding news this week:



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Taurus:</h2>



Taurus, the digital asset infrastructure firm, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/credit-suisse-taurus-deal">closed a $65 million Series B led by Credit Suisse</a>. Other investors included Deutsche Bank, Pictet Group and Arab Bank Switzerland.



Taurus’ latest capital inflows will be used to grow its team, the company said in a statement, under the more specific focus on hiring engineering and sales talent.&nbsp;



Sabih Behzad, Deutsche Bank’s head of digital assets, said the company plans to integrate Taurus’ technology into its own IT environment.



“This will form a key part of our digital asset custody platform and will make it easier for us to develop and roll out our digital asset custody offering,” Behzad said in a statement. “Through this investment, Deutsche Bank is delighted to partner on the development of the market for digital assets.”



One sign to keep an eye out for Deutsche Bank’s move into cryptocurrencies.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Superplastic:</h2>



Superplastic, an entertainment and product brand that has launched various NFTs, has <a href="https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/amazon-studios-superplastic-investment-janky-guggimon-show-1235523382/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">secured</a> $20 million in an extension of the startup’s Series A led by <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/amazon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Amazon’s</a> Alexa Fund.



Other prominent venture funds — including Craft Ventures, Google Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Sony Japan and Animoca Brands — also participated.



The Vermont-based company creates “synthetic celebrities” — who could soon be featured in Amazon Primes&#8217; next original video series, “The Janky &amp; Guggimon Show.” ​​Both Janky and Guggimon currently boast over a million Instagram followers.



Seems like virtual celebrities are all the new hype for tech giants.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Monad Labs:</h2>



Former Jump Trading founders have secured $19 million in a seed round for their latest startup, Monad Labs.&nbsp;



Venture capital firm Dragon Capital led the raise. Other participants included Paceholder Capital, Lemniscap and Shima Capital.



Prominent DeFi figures Cobie and Hasu also chipped in, the company said in a statement.&nbsp;



The latest capital will allow Monad Labs to continue building its layer-1 smart contract platform.



“We are excited to work alongside our investors to bring Monad to market, build out its capabilities and show the world exactly what blockchains can do,” said Keone Hon, co-founder and chief executive of Monad Labs, in a statement.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Other notable funding rounds include:</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Zion, a self-styled “Web5 Creator Network” built on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, landed $6 million in a round led by ​​XBTO Humla Ventures.</li>



<li>Sending Labs — a Web3 communication app — took home $12.5 million in seed funding in a round led by Insignia Venture Partners, MindWorks Capital and Signum Capital.</li>



<li>Crypto market index Alongside took in $11 million from a16z.</li>
</ul>



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Funding

Funding Roundup: Crypto Companies Landed $185M This Week

Macauley Peterson

<div id="highlights-block_626a84c2894eb" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>More EU banks will soon offer digital assets to their clients, Taurus CEO says</li>
 <li>The French DASP license prepares banks to comply with EU-wide regulations</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Switzerland has long been thought of as the crypto capital of Europe, with its Zug canton — dubbed ‘Crypto Valley’ — home to <a href="https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss--crypto-valley--boasts-14--unicorns-/47291870" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">over a thousand blockchain startups</a>. But other countries in the EU are catching up.



A recent report <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/report-germany-is-the-most-crypto-friendly-country/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">put Germany at the top</a> of the crypto-friendly rankings globally, largely due to the rollout of digital asset custody and trading by German banks. That pattern looks to be going continent-wide, as the French Banque Delubac &amp; Cie, founded in 1924, has become the first to receive the status of Digital Asset Service Provider (“DASP”), allowing investment in digital assets, in partnership with Swiss crypto infrastructure provider Taurus.



The DASP license stems from a 2019 law in France — the PACTE law, or Action Plan for Business Growth and Transformation (“Plan d&#8217;Action pour la Croissance et la Transformation des Entreprises”) — and it should prepare banks well for the next phase of EU regulation, the MiCa, Taurus co-founder Lamine Brahimi told Blockworks.



The MiCA (“Markets in Crypto-assets”) regulation, introduced in 2020 and working its way toward adoption in 2023, is the first EU-wide legislative initiative to establish a comprehensive framework for the issuance of and provision of services for cryptoassets.



Until recently, it was unclear whether or how quickly traditional banks such as Delubac &amp; Cie would move to offer digital assets to their client base, according to Brahimi. Perhaps they would leave the space to unregulated entities — firms without banking licenses. But Brahimi is now confident that more incumbent banks will follow.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“You can assume that the demand now is getting mainstream,” Brahimi said, adding “It&#8217;s not just theory.&#8221;</blockquote>



Roughly half of Europeans prefer decentralized exchanges, according to <a href="https://www.bde.es/f/webbde/Secciones/Publicaciones/InformesBoletinesRevistas/InformesEstabilidadFinancera/22/IEF_2022_1_CapE.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a recent report</a> from the Bank of Spain, which rates France and Germany as the top two crypto friendly countries in Europe. But there’s a wide swath of the European public that welcomes the investor protections which come from dealing with a regulated bank, Brahimi said.



“If you are an expert in managing wallets, and you want to do it on your own and secure your private keys yourself, that&#8217;s fine, but the vast majority of the people out there just don&#8217;t want to manage this complexity, and they want to buy cryptos or tokenized securities, or what have you, in the same way they buy stocks, and have it reported in their consolidated banking reporting.”



These fence-sitters may have an interest in trading digital assets, but they prefer to deal with their existing day-to-day bank rather than establish new accounts with crypto-dedicated firms.



If that proves to be the case, infrastructure partners like Taurus — which works with banks in Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain and Eastern Europe — stand to benefit, as big institutions would rather buy or license a product from a service provider than develop in-house cryptography and specialized IT expertise needed for secure custody.



”Now that the first few banks have made the move, we’ve received multiple calls from players that ask us, ‘how can we move forward?’,” Brahimi said.



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French Bank, Delubac & Cie, First to Offer Regulated Digital Asset Services

<div id="highlights-block_615c4b5f3cf81" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Alaia tokenized shares will be admitted for trading on Taurus Digital Exchange</li>
 <li>Security tokens regulated by the Swiss Capital Markets and Technology Association (“CMTA”) standards, using the Ethereum public blockchain</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Part of the promise of blockchain technology is its supposed ability to improve the issuance and exchange of tokenized securities to make them more secure, efficient and transparent than is possible in traditional finance. The practical application of security tokens, however, has been slow to develop, largely due to regulatory hurdles.



One country that seems to be ahead of the rest is Switzerland, where standards developed by the Capital Markets and Technology Association (CMTA) are now seeing adoption in capital markets.



The Geneva-based <a href="https://www.taurushq.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Taurus</a> has developed a suite of tools to enable companies to tokenize their shares on Ethereum in a regulatory-compliant manner. Today, Taurus announced that Alaia SA, a startup that develops and manages sport and hospitality infrastructure, has successfully done just that, with the shares deposited at the banking giant Credit Suisse and soon to be available on the secondary market via <a href="https://t-dx.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Taurus Digital Exchange</a>.



Lamine Brahimi, co-founder of Taurus, said in a statement, “we are committed to supporting entrepreneurs and financial institutions to make private assets digital,” referring to the prospect as “corporate finance 2.0.” 



Taurus’ product line, called Capital, Protect and Explorer, enables the “end-to-end digital management of Alaia shares and their representation in Credit Suisse booking systems,” according to Taurus’ <a href="https://blog.taurushq.com/alaia-tokenises-its-shares-with-credit-suisse-powered-by-taurus/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">press release</a>.



The company simplifies the process for banks, exchanges, broker dealers and large NFT platforms, for example, by facilitating gasless transactions on Ethereum for their clients. Taurus’ smart contracts handle the transaction fees to settle share transactions on-chain.



<meta charset="utf-8">Brahimi told Blockworks the CMTA standard being employed was “an improved version of [earlier standards] with all things related to company shares (investors, whitelisting, corporate actions).” The CMTA “<a href="https://www.cmta.ch/content/52/cmta-blueprint-for-the-tokenization-of-shares-of-swiss-corporations.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blueprint for the tokenization of shares</a>” was developed in September 2018, and outlines a process for Swiss corporations to follow. 



Initially only Ethereum and Tezos are supported blockchains for the security tokens, but the firm plans to support additional chains in the future, he noted.