Şişli, a town near Istanbul where Misyon Bank is based. Image by Eric Rosenbaum via flickr.com. License: Creative Commons
Misyon, which claims to be Turkey’s first neobank, is cooperating with the technology provider Taurus. The bank would like to store cryptocurrencies and tokenize securities for its customers. This could indicate a friendly development of the regulatory climate in Turkey.
Turkey’s Misyon Bank has agreed a partnership with Taurus, a Swiss technology provider for tokenization and crypto custody.
Specifically, Misyon will use Taurus’ technologies to custody digital assets and offer services related to the tokenization of traditional securities. Bitcoin, Ether and Avalanche will initially be held, but all “essential cryptocurrencies” will follow later. In addition, Misyon will also build an infrastructure to tokenize assets such as bonds or stocks for companies in Turkey and the wider region.
Önder Halisdemir, CEO of “Turkey’s first neo-bank”, commented on the partnership by saying that they have the vision to “make Turkey Switzerland in the region”. The collaboration with Taurus is a significant step on this path. “With this collaboration, Turkish assets will be made attractively available to investors worldwide,” while Turkey becomes the region’s hub for tokenization.
In Turkey, the completion of a regulatory framework for the custody of digital assets is currently underway. Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek is sympathetic to the industry, and even President Erdoğan seems to support crypto-friendly personnel.
Misyon’s announcement that it will actually custody Bitcoin and Ether indicates a more liberal line from the government, which has so far seemed rather restrictive. However, with Taurus as a partner, Misyon Bank is taking a conservative path that it can continue even if the government bans real cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and only allows controllable “digital assets”.
The Geneva-based company Taurus consistently combines blockchain and traditional banking as a crypto platform. The platform is compatible with the usual technical systems of banks, which probably helped the startup to win numerous large financial institutions as customers, such as the Spanish Banco Santander, Deutsche Bank and Credite Suisse. Its technical platform can dock with both public and private blockchains, which means customers can only use digital central bank currencies.
With a $65 million investment that Taurus secured in February last year, the company should also be well equipped to further develop its technology and win additional financial institutions as customers without pressure to make profits.
Taurus is far from the ideal of real cryptocurrencies. But compared to R3, which is increasingly moving closer to Europe’s major banks and central banks with its digitalized fiat currencies and bonds, it is likely to be a significantly more open alternative.
Source: https://bitcoinblog.de/2024/04/02/tuerkische-neobank-wird-bitcoin-verwahren-und-assets-tokenisieren/
