CoinDesk
Swiss crypto custodian Taurus has been granted a MiFID II investment licence from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), giving it authorisation to offer tokenized financial instruments to EU banks and run secondary trading for tokenized bonds, fund shares, equities and structured products. The licence, announced Wednesday, places Taurus in the same regulatory perimeter as the brokers and banks it serves — a structural prerequisite, not a finishing touch.
The firm joins OKX, Gemini, Crypto.com, Kraken, Bitstamp and Perpetuals.com on the short list of crypto-native firms holding MiFID II authorisation. Taurus already counts Deutsche Bank, ClearBank, KBC, Santander, State Street, CACEIS, Pictet and Swissquote as clients, and holds a separate licence from Swiss regulator FINMA. A Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) application is in the pipeline, co-founder Sébastien Dessimoz said.
Why it matters
MiFID II is the EU's core framework for investment services, trading venues and financial instruments including equities, bonds, derivatives and structured products. A MiFID book effectively turns a crypto custodian into a regulated investment services provider, which is the language EU bank procurement teams, custodians and asset managers already speak. "Banks like to face fully regulated entities that are similar to the one they used to work with," Dessimoz told Zipp, framing the licence as a passport into the same vendor onboarding rails traditional brokers use.
The licence also gives Taurus a legal route to clear secondary trades in DLT-format instruments — tokenized equity, tokenized debt and tokenized fund shares that qualify as MiFID financial instruments. That is the gap the industry has been waiting on: infrastructure that can speak both crypto-native settlement and the regulatory grammar of EU capital markets.
Market impact
Taurus is now positioned to convert its existing bank and asset-manager pipeline into live tokenized-product mandates without waiting on bespoke legal opinions per jurisdiction.
Frequently asked questions
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What does Taurus's MiFID II licence actually let it do?
Authorised by CySEC in Cyprus, Taurus can offer tokenized financial instruments to EU banks and asset managers and run secondary trading for tokenized bonds, fund shares, equities and structured products under the EU's core investment services framework.
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Why is a MiFID II licence important for a crypto custodian?
MiFID II is the regulatory language EU bank procurement teams already speak. Holding the licence lets Taurus onboard as a regulated investment services provider rather than a crypto-native vendor that needs bespoke legal opinions per jurisdiction.
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Which banks and asset managers already work with Taurus?
Taurus names Deutsche Bank, ClearBank, KBC, Santander, State Street, CACEIS, Pictet and Swissquote as existing clients across its crypto custody and tokenization work.
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What other licences does Taurus hold or have pending?
Taurus already holds a licence from Swiss regulator FINMA. Co-founder Sébastien Dessimoz said a Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) application is in the pipeline alongside the new CySEC authorisation.
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Which other crypto firms hold MiFID II licences?
Taurus joins OKX, Gemini, Crypto.com, Kraken, Bitstamp and Perpetuals.com on the short list of crypto-native firms authorised under MiFID II in the EU.
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