According to Cointelegraph, Taurus SA and Aktionariat AG have joined forces to enable the trading of tokenized shares from small- and medium-sized Swiss enterprises (SMEs) on the Taurus Digital Exchange (TDX). This collaboration aims to enhance liquidity access for Swiss SMEs by allowing their shares to be converted into blockchain-based tokens on the Ethereum network and traded digitally on TDX.
The initiative will first be introduced to RealUnit Schweiz AG, an investment company focused on real assets, and is scheduled to go live in November. Victor Busson, chief marketing officer at Taurus SA, highlighted that tokenized shares offer the same economic and social rights as traditional shares. Unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, if tokenized shares are lost while self-custodying outside of a marketplace, the issuer can mint new tokens in accordance with the shareholder registry.
The tokenized shares will provide investors with the option to hold equity digitally, choosing between bearer shares, which are not recorded in a formal register, and registered shares. Taurus will admit shares tokenized by Aktionariat to its platform TDX, thereby granting access to its network of banks, investors, and retail clients.
RealUnit Schweiz AG, which tokenized its shares via Aktionariat in April 2022, will be the first to list its tokenized shares on TDX. Dani Stüssi, CEO of RealUnit Schweiz AG, stated that the firm will be one of the first Swiss companies to offer tokenized instruments. He emphasized that being admitted to trade on TDX is a natural progression in their journey to increase accessibility and liquidity for their investors.
In December 2023, Taurus also partnered with German fintech firm Teylor to begin tokenizing SME loans and providing tokenholders with monthly cashflows. By tokenizing part of Teylor’s credit portfolio on the Taurus infrastructure and TDX-regulated marketplace, professional private debt investors could participate in blockchain-based secondary markets for returns. Lamine Brahimi, managing partner and co-founder at Taurus, noted that this collaboration enabled smaller investments and token trading, marking the first private debt portfolio tokenization.