Nomura’s Laser Digital Wins Japan’s First New Crypto License in 4 Years

Japan hadn’t approved a single new crypto exchange in four years. That freeze just ended, and it was one of the country’s biggest brokerages that broke it.

Laser Digital, the digital asset subsidiary of Japanese banking giant Nomura, completed its registration as a crypto asset exchange service provider under Japan’s Payment Services Act on August 21, receiving license number 00032. It’s the first new exchange registration Japan’s Financial Services Agency has granted since 2022. Laser Digital Japan will start by providing institutional liquidity services to domestic virtual asset service providers covering Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Shiba Inu, with plans to expand into direct institutional trading services later.

This isn’t Laser Digital’s first regulatory approval, the firm already holds a VARA license in Dubai, operates in Switzerland, and received conditional OCC trust bank approval in the US. Since launching in 2022, it has built out trading, asset management, and venture investment as its three core business lines under Nomura’s backing.

A four-year licensing drought ending specifically through a major traditional bank’s subsidiary, rather than a crypto-native firm, says something about which kind of applicant Japanese regulators are currently comfortable approving. Laser Digital’s eventual push into corporate and pension fund clients will be the real test of whether this opens the door wider or stays a one-off.

Want to understand how crypto exchange licensing regimes work in major markets like Japan? Learn more in the Bitcoin Academy.