Bank Syz, the Swiss private bank, tokenized an artwork using the Taurus tokenization platform. Rather than tokenizing a Picasso, it is the “Dreamstime” artwork by Swiss resident Sarah Benslimane. The Ethereum-based security tokens aren’t being sold. Instead, the bank transferred them to staff, giving them ownership of the piece.
If the token holders want to buy and sell tokens, they can do so via the Taurus TDX marketplace.
Bank Syz is a family run managing around CHF 23 billion ($27 billion) in assets. Taurus has some big name banking partners, particularly for digital asset custody. Last month it added State Street, the world’s second largest global custodian, in addition to serving Deutsche Bank, CACEIS and Santander.
In terms of the art tokenization, the internal Bank Syz program provided a learning experience for the Swiss bank on a potential solution that their wealth clients could find interesting. So far it has offered its clients cryptocurrency trading and custody.
“This project not only enables our employees to engage with art in a novel way but also allows us to explore the vast potential of blockchain technology in wealth management,” said Nicolas Syz, Head of Private Bank at Bank Syz. “We are excited about the learnings gained from this initial tokenization of a real asset and how they could potentially shape our future offerings.”
The tokenization took place earlier this year.
Meanwhile, other Swiss banks have dabbled in art tokenization. For example, Sygnum tokenized an Andy Warhol piece, Four Marilyns, in 2022.
