Nomura Targets Crypto Venture Space With Laser Digital

Japan-based financial giant’s Laser Digital intends to launch trading and investment products in the coming months

article-image

Source: Shutterstock

share

key takeaways

  • Laser Digital is set to invest in DeFi, Web3 and blockchain infrastructure companies
  • Nomura partnered with CoinShares and Ledger to launch crypto custodian Komainu in 2020

Japan-based financial giant Nomura is looking to expand its digital asset ambitions with a new crypto-focused company that would invest in the space’s innovators, as well as offer trading and other investment products to institutional clients.

Called Laser Digital, the company is set to first concentrate on venture capital — investing in companies that focus on DeFi, centralized finance, Web3 and blockchain infrastructure, the investment bank revealed Wednesday.

The company intends to also focus on secondary trading and investor products as it seeks to launch more services in the coming months.   

Steven Ashley and Jez Mohideen will be chair and CEO of the new business, respectively. Nomura has incorporated Laser Digital’s holding company in Switzerland. 

“Staying at the forefront of digital innovation is a key priority for Nomura,” Nomura CEO Kentaro Okuda said in a statement. “This is why, alongside our efforts to diversify our business, we announced earlier this year that Nomura would be setting up a new subsidiary focused on digital assets.”

Nomura had first revealed plans for the business in May — a month after it formed its digital company as part of a reorganization of its future innovation division.

“The new company will enable us to build an edge in providing institutional clients with access to a wide range of new products and services and contribute meaningfully towards responsible innovation in the digital asset ecosystem,” Ashley said at the time. 

Ashley, formerly head of Nomura’s wholesale division, has stepped down to help lead Laser Digital. Christopher Willcox, previously CEO of JPMorgan Asset Management, is set to replace him in that role on Oct. 1, Nomura said in a statement.

Now Laser Digital’s CEO, Mohideen joined Nomura in 2018 as a global chief digital officer. Prior to Nomura, he had led the development of systematic trading capabilities at hedge fund Brevan Howard. 

Nomura is not new to the crypto space. It partnered with cryptoasset manager CoinShares and digital asset security company Ledger in 2020 to launch crypto custodian Komainu.

A Nomura spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template (10).png

Research

Innovations on Aptos’ technical design through Raptr, Shardines, and Zaptos approach near-optimal latency and throughput by unlocking 100% utilization of network resources, with the capacity to settle 260k transactions per second with latencies less than 800ms. The original Move language was revamped with the launch of Move 2, supporting more expressivity in smart contract logic and a scalable ability to interact with high volume datasets. The ecosystem has benefitted from strong asset inflows, now hosting over $1.3B in stablecoins, $450M in bridged BTC, and $530M in RWAs. Activity in the Aptos ecosystem has grown notably over the past year, with monthly application revenue reaching ~$835k and monthly DEX volumes growing to over $5B, both at new all time highs.

article-image

Interchain Labs will focus on sovereign L1s and institutional demand, abandoning plans for smart contracts on the Cosmos Hub

article-image

Also, only three tokens have outperformed bitcoin so far this year: XMR, HYPE and SKY

article-image

The fund group has submitted proposals in recent months for other funds that would hold litecoin, solana, XRP, HBAR, Sui and others

article-image

Momentum’s back — BTC leads, risk assets follow

article-image

Ondo Finance’s acquisition of blockchain development company Strangelove follows its buy of Oasis Pro

article-image

Cryptocurrency and stock traders alike had a lot to unpack Wednesday