Today Nomura, Japan’s largest securities firm, said it would create a new digital company on April 1st. It’s not an entirely new venture. In 2019 Nomura set up the Future Innovation Company, which will be rolled into the startup with the addition of 20% more headcount.
The goals of the startup are quite broad, and the only specifics that were mentioned related to digital assets.
“Digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, security tokens, and non-fungible tokens are gaining presence as a new asset class,” said Nomura in a statement. “The fusion of innovations stemming from distributed ledger technology with traditional finance is giving rise to a new range of services. By tapping into this, Nomura aims to expand its private markets businesses and broaden its services in focus areas including sustainability and decarbonization.”
Nomura is already fairly active in the sector. It invested in a joint venture crypto custody startup Komainu in Jersey and in Crypto Garage in Japan, where it also partnered for custody. And it invested alongside Peter Thiel in the Bullish crypto exchange.
Moving onto security tokens, together with the Nomura Research Institute, it founded BOOSTRY, which developed a security token platform that initially focuses on bond issuance. It also invested in SBI’s Osaka Digital Exchange and has participated in security token issuances on MUFG Trust’s platform Progmat.
