Laser Digital, the digital assets arm of Japanese financial services giant Nomura Group, has made a strategic investment in ZIGChain, a UAE-based Layer 1 blockchain that also partners with cryptocurrency-friendly fund servicing firm Apex Group.

The exact size of Laser Digital's investment was not disclosed, but it is understood to be in the single-digit millions.

The strategic partnership aims to streamline private credit markets across the Gulf States, including Sharia-compliant offerings. Private credit — lending by non-bank institutions to companies outside public markets — has grown into a multi-trillion-dollar global asset class, and tokenizing these instruments on a blockchain promises to broaden access, reduce settlement friction, and improve transparency for investors. According to a statement, the partnership delivers a comprehensive risk framework design and governance across a pipeline of institutional onchain vault products.

ZIGChain co-founder Abdul Rafay Gadit said the partnership is as important as the investment itself. After an initial meeting with Laser Digital CEO Jez Mohideen, a shared vision emerged regarding the need for greater accessibility to financial services and the role that crypto and tokenization can play — a connection facilitated by the fact that both firms are based in Dubai.

"Laser is creating with us one of the largest on-chain products the Gulf countries have ever seen," Rafay Gadit said in an interview. "It helps that we are based in Dubai and Laser is also in Dubai, and our offices are literally one kilometer apart."

Dubai has positioned itself as one of the most proactive regulators in the digital assets space, having established the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) in 2022 to license and oversee crypto activity. That regulatory clarity has attracted a cluster of blockchain firms and institutional investors to the emirate, creating a local deal-making environment that the two firms leveraged.

The investment comes during a challenging period for the cryptocurrency industry, with a down market affecting firms across the sector. In February of this year, Nomura tightened risk limits at Laser Digital after crypto losses dragged down quarterly profit. While the market interpreted the move as a potential retreat, Nomura indicated it would maintain its presence in crypto, albeit with a more conservative approach.

Against that backdrop, Laser Digital's investment and partnership with ZIGChain is designed to apply institutional-grade risk frameworks and governance to a pipeline of onchain vault products. The move reflects a broader pattern among legacy financial institutions — including BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and HSBC — that have explored or launched tokenized funds and treasury products, signaling growing institutional conviction in blockchain-based finance infrastructure.

Rafay Gadit described the private credit market in the Middle East as facing a two-sided problem.

"Firstly, those who need money cannot raise it from the normal banks, and those who have money don't know those opportunities exist," he said. "And even if they know, it's only approachable through very large funds that have extremely high fees and barriers to entry. We are democratizing that."

Dr. Jez Mohideen, co-founder and CEO of Laser Digital, said his firm has been monitoring the private credit category closely. While the opportunity in onchain finance is real, execution risk has been consistently underestimated, he noted.

"ZIG Markets brings regional depth and an origination track record, and as an investor and partner, our role is to apply the same higher standards of institutional risk frameworks we use across our broader offerings," Mohideen said. "The shared vision remains to make the next generation of asset management products accessible to those moving serious institutional capital."