Laser Digital Japan, the local arm of Nomura's digital asset subsidiary, announced on August 21 that it has registered as a crypto asset exchange service provider, becoming the first firm to clear Japan's licensing bar in four years. Institutional investors in the country now have a Nomura-supported venue for digital asset trading.

First new registration in four years

The company operates under the Payment Services Act and is listed with the Director-General of the Kanto Local Finance Bureau under Registration No. 00032. It has also become a member of the Japan Virtual and Crypto assets Exchange Association (JVCEA), the self-regulatory organization for licensed operators.

The four-year gap is a legacy of Japan's tightened vetting regime. After the January 2018 hack of exchange Coincheck, in which roughly ¥58 billion (about $530 million) worth of NEM tokens was stolen, the Financial Services Agency stepped up on-site inspections and raised the bar for new registrations. Recent entrants have generally arrived by acquiring existing licensees — Binance relaunched in Japan in 2023 after buying Sakura Exchange Bitcoin — rather than by clearing fresh reviews of their own.

The registration arrives amid broader legislative change. Japan's National Diet passed legislation on July 15 to transfer crypto regulation from the Payment Services Act to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. The change would tax qualifying crypto gains at a rate of 20%, a reduction from the current maximum of 55%. Those tax provisions are projected to apply from January 1, 2028. Japan has also put stablecoins on a legal footing, with 2022 legislation allowing yen-backed stablecoins to be issued by licensed banks, trust companies and funds-transfer providers.

Liquidity desks first, institutions next

Laser Digital said it will initially focus on providing liquidity to domestic virtual asset service providers, with trading access for institutional investors to come later, according to the company's official announcement.

Japan's licensed market already includes established domestic platforms such as bitFlyer and Coincheck, as well as exchanges affiliated with SBI Holdings and Rakuten — the pool of domestic operators its initial liquidity services are aimed at — and the yen has consistently ranked among the most-traded fiat currencies against bitcoin.

Laser Digital opened its Tokyo office in October 2025 under Hideaki Kudo, a former Nomura executive, and said at the time it was in pre-consultation talks with the Financial Services Agency. Kudo, now Representative Director and Head of Laser Digital Japan, said clearing the review process marks "an important milestone in our roadmap to serve the Japanese market."

A 2026 Institutional Investor Survey published jointly by Nomura and Laser Digital found that 65% of respondents see crypto assets as a way to diversify their portfolios. About 79% of those respondents said they intend to invest over the next three years.

"Sophisticated investors are increasingly looking for access and the necessary quality of infrastructure behind it," said Steve Ashley, Laser Digital's co-founder and executive chairman.

A growing global footprint

Nomura spun off Laser Digital in 2022. The Zurich-based company has since won regulatory approvals in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, where it was the first firm to be licensed to offer OTC crypto options in August 2025. As Cryptopolitan reported, it gained conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust bank charter in May 2026 — a first for a subsidiary of a Japanese financial institution. The firm also already manages institutional digital-asset funds, including a Bitcoin adoption fund launched in 2023.

"Japan's digital assets market is entering a new phase of maturity," said co-founder and CEO Dr. Jez Mohideen.