Japanese Securities Giants Ramp Up Blockchain Experiments
Leading Japanese securities firms, including Nomura and Daiwa, are increasing their experiments with blockchain infrastructure. The initiatives are focused on building bridges between traditional financial assets and digital asset markets. This activity signals growing institutional interest in Japan for integrating tokenization and DLT into core financial services.
- Nomura and Daiwa are partnering with Japan's three largest banks—Mitsubishi UFJ, Sumitomo Mitsui, and Mizuho—to facilitate the trading of tokenized securities using a jointly issued, yen-pegged stablecoin. This collaboration aims to enable 24/7 real-time settlement of assets like stocks and bonds on a blockchain. - In a separate initiative, Daiwa Securities is exploring the use of public blockchains for security tokens and has underwritten ¥22.6 billion ($153 million) in security tokens backed by real-world assets. The firm is conducting a proof-of-concept with Web3 infrastructure company Gincon, utilizing soul-bound tokens (SBTs) for investor verification. - Nomura has a history of pioneering real-world asset tokenization in Japan, having underwritten and sold the country's first publicly offered real estate security token in August 2021. Since then, the firm has handled numerous real estate and corporate bond security tokens. - Rival financial giant SBI Holdings has partnered with Startale Group to launch "Strium," a blockchain-based exchange infrastructure for trading and settling tokenized securities and other real-world assets in Asia. - Daiwa previously conducted a proof-of-concept for issuing tokenized corporate bonds on the Liquid Network, a sidechain of Bitcoin. The experiment involved settling the transaction with a digital currency in a delivery versus payment (DvP) process. - The legal foundation for these initiatives was significantly strengthened by Japan's Stablecoin Act, which went into effect in June 2023. This legislation legally recognizes stablecoins as digital money and restricts their issuance to licensed banks and trust companies, providing regulatory clarity for institutional participants. - Looking ahead, several of Japan's largest asset managers, including Nomura Asset Management and Daiwa Asset Management, have expressed interest in launching cryptocurrency funds for both retail and institutional investors, pending further regulatory approvals.
