Japan's Nomura Seeks Federal Banking License for Crypto Custody

When a 130-year-old Japanese investment bank decides it needs a crypto license in America, you know the institutional tide has turned. Nomura's digital arm, Laser Digital, just filed paperwork with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to become a federally regulated national trust bank—a move that signals how mainstream finance is quietly reshaping the crypto custody landscape.

The proposed Laser Digital National Trust Bank would offer cryptocurrency custody, spot trading, and staking services for institutional clients under direct federal oversight. Unlike the wild west of unregulated crypto services, this would operate within the familiar framework that pension funds, endowments, and corporations actually trust.

The Federal Banking Playbook

Laser Digital isn't pioneering this path—it's following a blueprint that's suddenly become popular. Just last month, Ripple, Circle Internet, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos all received initial approvals for similar trust bank structures. The pattern is clear: crypto companies are racing to get under the federal regulatory umbrella rather than operating in state-by-state patchworks.

The timing isn't coincidental. As Purvi Maniar, Laser Digital's chief legal officer and proposed bank president, put it: "Institutional clients are increasingly looking for ways to engage with digital assets within structures that are familiar, well governed, and regulator supervised."

This reflects a fundamental shift in how institutions think about crypto exposure. The days of explaining to compliance committees why you're using an exchange based in the Bahamas are ending. CFOs want their crypto custody to look and feel like their bond custody—boring, regulated, and federally supervised.

Beyond American Shores

Laser Digital brings an interesting international perspective to this trend. Already licensed in the UAE and based in Zurich, the company operates crypto funds and treasury management tools across multiple jurisdictions. Earlier this month, it launched a tokenized bitcoin yield-bearing fund, showing how traditional asset management is being reimagined for digital assets.

Nomura's move also highlights how non-U.S. financial institutions view American regulatory clarity as a competitive advantage. While European banks navigate MiCA regulations and Asian institutions deal with varying national approaches, the U.S. national trust bank framework offers a clear, established path to institutional credibility.

The proposed bank won't offer deposit accounts or securities trading initially—keeping its focus narrow on digital asset services. This surgical approach suggests Laser Digital understands that regulatory approval comes easier when you're not trying to reinvent all of banking at once.

The Custody Arms Race

What's driving this rush toward federal banking licenses? Follow the money. Institutional demand for crypto exposure is growing, but these clients have non-negotiable requirements around custody, compliance, and regulatory oversight. A hedge fund might be comfortable with a crypto-native custody solution, but a state pension fund needs to check boxes that only federal banking supervision can provide.

The competitive implications are significant. Companies with federal trust bank licenses can offer services that unregulated competitors simply cannot match when pitching institutional clients. It's not just about safety—it's about meeting the procurement and compliance requirements that govern how large institutions can engage with service providers.

This creates a two-tiered market: federally regulated institutions serving the largest clients, and everyone else fighting for the remainder. The question becomes whether there's enough institutional demand to support all these new trust banks, or if we're seeing the early stages of consolidation in crypto custody services.