Crypto custodian Taurus has obtained a MiFID II investment license from Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) as of May 6, 2026, clearing the path to offer tokenized financial instruments and secondary trading services to EU banks and asset managers. The license positions Taurus alongside established crypto-native brokers like OKX, Gemini, and Kraken that already hold MiFID II credentials, but with a distinct advantage: deep relationships with legacy financial institutions including Deutsche Bank, ClearBank, KBC, and Santander.
MiFID II Unlocks Institutional Trading Infrastructure
MiFID II is the EU’s core regulatory framework governing investment services and financial assets across member states. The license qualifies Taurus as a regulated investment service provider, enabling it to execute trades, hold client assets, and distribute tokenized securities within the bloc. Sébastien Dessimoz, Taurus co-founder, emphasized the regulatory parity: “Banks like to face fully regulated entities that are similar to the one they used to work with. All the brokers in Europe are MiFID licensed firms, and Taurus is a broker also and now a MiFID licensed firm.” This alignment matters. Traditional custodians and brokers operate under MiFID II. Taurus now competes on equivalent footing while retaining its crypto-native infrastructure advantage.
Institutional Adoption and Regulatory Stacking
Taurus already holds a Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) license and operates custody infrastructure for major institutions including State Street, CACEIS, Pictet, and Swissquote. The CySEC license adds a second regulatory layer and expands geographic reach into the EU proper. The firm is also pursuing a Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) application, which will further consolidate its position as a fully multi-jurisdictional digital asset infrastructure provider. MiCA, the EU’s dedicated crypto regulation framework, is expected to create standardized licensing across member states, but MiFID II already allows immediate market access for tokenized financial products and secondary trading operations.
Bridging Custody and Tokenization in Regulated Markets
The license directly supports Taurus’s core business: tokenizing traditional financial assets and enabling institutional settlement through blockchain infrastructure. EU banks increasingly require counterparties that can demonstrate regulatory compliance equivalent to legacy brokers while offering blockchain-native operational efficiency. MiFID II licensing removes a key friction point in institutional adoption of tokenized securities. Competitors already licensed include Crypto.com, Kraken, and Bitstamp, but Taurus’s existing custody relationships with tier-one financial institutions give it a distribution advantage in the tokenization wave.
Next Regulatory Milestone: MiCA Approval
The MiFID II license is operational immediately. Taurus’s pending MiCA application represents the next critical checkpoint. MiCA will provide dedicated crypto licensing and is expected to streamline cross-border digital asset services. Until then, the CySEC credential enables full institutional trading and tokenization services under existing EU investment services rules. The regulator confirmed no timeline for MiCA approval at press.
