Nomura Holdings, the biggest investment bank in Japan, wants to step into the world of crypto trading. It plans to do this through its company called Laser Digital Holdings.
The company is trying to get a crypto trading license in Japan. Right now, it is talking with the Financial Services Agency to get approval. If it gets the green light, Laser will start offering crypto trading services to big institutions in Japan.
The timing is not random. Crypto trading in Japan has exploded in recent months. Data shows that the total value of trades doubled to more than 33 trillion yen, which is about 230 billion dollars, in just the first seven months of this year.
Japan has slowly started to make rules that are friendlier to digital assets. The government is even looking at ways to reduce taxes on crypto and make it easier for funds to invest in digital assets. These changes are attracting more interest from banks and financial companies.
Even big names that were once cautious are now jumping in. Daiwa Securities, the second-largest brokerage in Japan, recently allowed its clients to use Bitcoin and Ether as collateral for yen loans. Nomura is following the same path, showing confidence in Japan’s digital asset market.
Nomura has not just started thinking about crypto now. Back in 2020, it launched Komainu, a service to safely store cryptocurrencies, in partnership with Ledger and CoinShares. Later, in 2022, it created Laser Digital to focus fully on crypto trading, investment funds, and blockchain ventures.
Since then, Laser has launched products for big investors, like a Bitcoin adoption fund and a NEAR protocol fund that uses blockchain with AI features. Even though the company faced losses in Europe earlier this year, Nomura still sees crypto as part of its long-term plan.
At the same time, Japan is also making a big push for stablecoins that are backed by the yen. The aim is to give people an alternative to dollar-backed coins like USDT and USDC. Monex Group is already working on one, and Japan Post Bank is planning to release its own version by 2026.
