Nomura’s Laser Digital makes single-digit million strategic investment in UAE L1 ZIGChain

Nomura Group’s digital assets arm Laser Digital has made a strategic investment in ZIGChain, a UAE-based Layer 1 blockchain focused on private credit markets, CoinDesk reported. The deal size was not disclosed but is understood to be in the single-digit millions.

The partnership is aimed at streamlining private credit markets across Gulf States, including Sharia-compliant offerings, according to ZIGChain co-founder Abdul Rafay Gadit. ZIGChain also works with crypto-friendly fund servicing provider Apex Group on its infrastructure and servicing stack.

Laser Digital, which tightened risk limits earlier this year after crypto losses hit Nomura’s quarterly profit, is positioning the deal as part of a more conservative institutional push. The investment and partnership will support a pipeline of onchain vault products with a comprehensive risk framework and governance, per a statement.

Gadit said the Middle East private credit market is constrained both for borrowers that struggle to access bank financing and for capital providers that lack direct access to opportunities. “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,” he said.

Laser Digital CEO Dr. Jez Mohideen said the firm has been tracking private credit and sees execution risk as underestimated in onchain finance. “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, adding that the goal is to make next-generation asset management products accessible to institutions.

The collaboration is anchored in Dubai, where both firms are based and operate within a growing digital asset regulatory environment. The partners plan to build what Gadit described as “one of the largest on-chain products the Gulf countries have ever seen,” targeting regional private credit flows via tokenization.