Tokyo September 21, 2022 - Nomura Holdings, Inc. announced today it named its new digital assets business Laser Digital and incorporated the holding company, Laser Digital Holdings AG in Switzerland.

Building on Nomura’s expertise in institutional investor businesses and global client base, Laser Digital will provide new value in the area of digital assets to our clients.

Laser Digital will be run by Steven Ashley as Chairman and Jez Mohideen as CEO.

Switzerland was selected as the location for the new entity given it is an established destination with a robust regulatory regime for digital assets and blockchain projects, and an attractive talent pool.

Kentaro Okuda, Nomura Holdings, Inc., President and Group CEO, said: “Staying at the forefront of digital innovation is a key priority for Nomura. 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 digital assets¹ . We look forward to sustainable growth in this new business under the leadership of Steven and Jez“

Over the coming months, Laser Digital will announce new services and product lines as it moves ahead with the staged launch of the business. As revealed earlier this year, the company will focus on three core areas: Secondary Trading, Venture Capital and Investor Products.

The first product to launch will be Laser Venture Capital, which will invest in companies in the digital ecosystem, with a focus on Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Centralized Finance (CeFi), Web3 and Blockchain infrastructure.