Nomura Holdings’ Laser Digital Japan has successfully registered as a Crypto Asset Exchange Service Provider under Japan’s Payment Services Act, ending a roughly four-year registration drought without a new industry entrant. The Kanto Local Finance Bureau lists the company as registration No. 00032, and the firm has also joined the Japan Virtual and Crypto Assets Exchange Association.
Rather than targeting retail traders, Laser Digital is focusing on the wholesale route by supplying liquidity to Japan’s licensed crypto firms to help clear larger orders. Institutional trading for professional Japanese investors is planned for a later date, though the exact launch timeline and complete product lineup have not been finalized.
The license covers six crypto assets: bitcoin, ethereum, XRP, bitcoin cash, litecoin, and shiba inu. All six tokens are part of the industry association’s Green List, which allows registered operators to offer them without requiring separate regulatory filings for each asset.
Steve Ashley, co-founder and executive chairman of Laser Digital, noted that the approval aligns with rising demand from professional investors for regulated infrastructure. The milestone comes after years of strict regulatory guardrails in Japan following past exchange hacks and collapses, which caused new registrations to dry up after 2022.
Under current standards, operators must maintain strict asset separation between client funds and company accounts, keep at least 95% of customer crypto in offline cold storage, and undergo annual audits. The current license does not permit crypto derivatives or the sponsorship of exchange-traded funds.
Nomura survey data indicates growing institutional interest, with 31% of 518 surveyed Japanese investment professionals expressing a bullish one-year outlook on crypto and 65% viewing digital assets as a diversification tool. Furthermore, 79% of respondents considering an allocation within three years plan to invest.
This development arrives ahead of a broader regulatory reset in Japan. Lawmakers passed legislation on July 15 to integrate crypto more deeply into the securities framework, with major provisions anticipated by fiscal 2027 alongside potential tax changes and rules regarding domestic spot crypto investment products.
