The Head of Crypto at Japan’s Nomura Holdings, Jaz Mohideen, has been announced to take up the Chief Executive Officer role at the new operation to begin in Switzerland. The Japanese investment bank said it is opening a new unit that will be focused on cryptocurrencies and assets. Namura Holdings calls its new subsidiary Laser Digital.

Opening New Opportunities

Steven Ashley, the Head of Trades and Investment at Namura Holdings, will step down as the unit head in the parent company to become the Chairman of Laser Digital. While Jaz Mohideen is expected to work as Laser Digital’s CEO. Meanwhile, JPMorgan’s former Head of Assets Management, Christopher Willcox, will become Nomura’s Head of Trades and Investment.

According to Nomura insiders, it is said that the company has been struggling with generating continuous income and it has been majorly relying on outsized bets placed by traders. Therefore, Nomura has been tilting towards adopting crypto and venturing into crypto services recently.

The company’s CEO and President, Kentaro Okuda, made comments about its current goals in the face of new realities. Okuda said that being ahead in digital technology is the major goal of Nomura. That is why, he said, along with the company’s effort at diversifying its business, it made announcements in the early part of this year that it would begin a subsidiary that would focus mainly on digital assets.

Okuda continued by saying the company is looking forward to having sustainable growth as it pursues this new business as headed by Ashley and Mohideen.

Consolidating on Old Crypto Experiences

Laser Digital’s operational roadmap is really an ambitious one. It is going to be focused on secondary trading, investor products, and venture capital as the major areas in the crypto space. As contained in the company’s announcement, the new office in Switzerland will have the responsibility of unveiling many new products in months to come.

The first product to look out for is its Venture Capital which will be searching for Web3, CeFi, DeFi, as well as blockchain projects it can invest in so it can build a fully functional digital space. 

Nomura has been in the business of launching features in the crypto space since the year began. But its first entry into crypto was in 2020 with the launching of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency custodian services for its institutional investors. It named the service Komainu and it included Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a number of other cryptocurrencies that had huge market capitalization.