Laser Digital, the digital assets arm of the Japanese financial services firm Nomura Group, has made a strategic investment in ZIGChain, a UAE-based Layer1 blockchain that also works with cryptocurrency-friendly fund servicing giant Apex Group.
The exact size of Laser’s investment was not revealed, but it’s 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.
ZIGChain co-founder Abdul Rafay Gadit noted that a shared vision emerged about the need for accessibility to financial services and the role crypto and tokenization can play.
“Laser is creating with us one of the largest on-chain products the Gulf countries have ever seen,” Gadit said.
Nomura indicated it would be staying in crypto, just with a more conservative approach.
Laser Digital’s investment and partnership with ZIGChain delivers a comprehensive risk framework and governance.
Gadit stated that the private credit market in the Middle East faces 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.
- “We are democratizing that,” he added.
