U.S. bank %StateStreet (NYSE: $STT) has announced a new partnership with Swiss %Cryptocurrency firm Taurus that’s aimed at growing its digital asset products and services.
In a news release, Boston-based State Street said it plans to work with Taurus to turn real-world assets into tradeable digital tokens.
State Street says it is seeing growing demand from institutional investors to use crypto as a means of hedging inflation and diversifying their portfolios.
Through the Taurus partnership, State Street will hold clients' crypto assets and help them create tokenized assets, such as funds and other securities.
State Street already provides cryptocurrency fund administration and accounting services to its institutional clientele.
Creating tokens involves converting ownership rights to traditional assets into digital tokens that exist on a blockchain network.
Advocates say tokenization of assets enhances transparency and security and makes some assets easier to trade.
State Street says the new service is focused on asset management clients that want to tokenize their funds.
State Street also serves as a custodian for its client’s crypto assets, offering greater security than clients can get from a crypto exchange or a digital wallet.
Taurus, a Swiss company backed by bank UBS (NYSE: $UBS), entered a similar partnership for crypto custody and tokenization with %DeutscheBank (NYSE: $DB) last year.
The stock of State Street has increased 20% in the last 12 months and currently trades at $81.01 U.S. per share.
