Laser Digital, the digital assets business unit of the Japanese bank Nomura, is hiring 17 more employees in its Switzerland headquarters, Dubai and London.
Laser Digital was established by Nomura on September 21, 2022, appointing Steven Ashley as chairman and Jez Mohideen as chief executive officer. This made the bank’s interest in the digital innovation space official.
The three core areas for Laser Digital are secondary trading, venture capital (VC) and investor products, and the very first product that it’s working on is its Laser Venture Capital.
Its sole purpose is to invest in companies that focus on decentralized finance (DeFi), centralized finance (CeFi), Web3 and blockchain infrastructure.
Next on the list is for the company to start trading cryptocurrencies. Blockworks reported that this crypto trading for institutional clients is scheduled for the first quarter of 2023.
The report cited Mohideen saying that it will be including high-frequency trading and proprietary trading, as well as market making.
However, the company’s focus for the immediate future, is managing crypto assets and developing its VC investment engines.
The report cited Mohideen saying that the skillset the company is acquiring through its hires is going to pave the way for Laser Digital to institutionalize digital assets, which Nomura had announced back in May.
So, while launching the digital assets unit in September makes the rollout seem like it started very cautiously, this latest move by Nomura’s crypto business boldly states that the bank is ready for a serious commitment.
This is especially important considering that many industry experts agree we’re in the middle of a crypto winter.
Ashley was reported by Financial News London as saying that the company is actually considering its decision to start hiring during the crypto winter rather sensible.
According to the report, he’s said that this enables the company to choose from a larger pool of talent, as well as recruit at lower prices, compared to booming periods.
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