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Nomura Securities

Investment bank

Nomura Securities is the Japanese investment-banking and brokerage subsidiary of Nomura Holdings, distinct from the holding-company-level Nomura entry that tracks the consolidated franchise. The securities arm is the operationally relevant counterparty for tokenisation activity at the deal level: it owns BOOSTRY (the security-token issuance and registry platform jointly held with SBI), and was the named megabank participant in the April 2026 tokenised JGB collateral trial on the Canton Network alongside Mizuho, JSCC and Digital Asset. For an APAC tokenisation operator, Nomura Securities is the Japanese sell-side desk that sits closest to live security-token issuance, structured-product distribution, and the tokenised-JGB collateral plumbing now taking shape under the FSA Payment Innovation Project sandbox.

Tokenisation positioning

Nomura Securities' posture is built around two structural pieces: BOOSTRY as the issuance and registry rail under the FIEA security-token regime, and the firm's primary-dealer franchise in Japanese government securities as the natural channel for tokenised JGB and tokenised structured-credit work. The underlying bet is that a brokerage-led platform owned jointly with SBI gives Nomura a more independent path than the bank-trust-route work running through Progmat under MUFG operational leadership. BOOSTRY's design point is that the security-token wrapper sits inside the existing FIEA perimeter, with the issuance, custody, and registry workflow handled by the platform and the underlying asset (real-estate beneficial interest, corporate bond, structured product) remaining the legally operative claim.

The institutional framing differs from the trust-route model. Where Progmat-format products lean on Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking as the trust counterparty, BOOSTRY-issued tokens typically run through SBI-side or Nomura-side trust counterparties depending on product design. The platform has been the issuance rail for several Japanese real-estate beneficial-interest deals, structured-product issuances, and corporate-bond pilots, with deal volume measured in low single-digit billions of yen per issuance rather than in the multi-trillion-yen aggregate that Kinexys-scale tokenised-deposit rails operate at.

Named products and pilots

  • BOOSTRY. The security-token issuance and registry platform owned jointly by Nomura (40 percent) and SBI Holdings (40 percent), with smaller minority holdings (BOOSTRY corporate page). The platform runs on the ibet-Network, a permissioned ledger originally developed by SBI's blockchain subsidiary. BOOSTRY-issued tokens have included real-estate beneficial-interest products, ESG-themed corporate bonds, and structured products distributed through Nomura's wealth and institutional channels.
  • April 2026 Canton tokenised JGB collateral trial. Nomura was named as one of the megabank participants in the Payment Innovation Project sandbox graduation announcement coordinated with Mizuho, JSCC and Digital Asset (Ledger Insights coverage). The trial focuses on tokenised JGBs as eligible collateral against a tokenised cash leg, with the cash-leg architecture not yet fully disclosed (flagged in outputs/_questions.md).
  • Payment Innovation Project sandbox. Nomura group entities have been admitted as PIP participants alongside Mizuho and other megabank cohort members, with the PIP track functioning as the formal supervisory channel for pre-production tokenisation pilots inside the FSA perimeter.
  • Project Guardian (MAS-led). Nomura has appeared in named participant lists across Project Guardian workstreams on tokenised structured products and tokenised fixed income; the workstream-level membership map is not surfaced in current raw entries.
  • Tokenised structured products distribution. Nomura's wealth and institutional-distribution franchises have been routes for tokenised structured-product distribution into Japanese accredited-investor channels. The product-by-product list is not consolidated in current raw entries.

Institutional partnerships

The BOOSTRY joint venture with SBI is the most consequential institutional partnership in the tokenisation franchise. The arrangement gives Nomura access to SBI's blockchain infrastructure stack and gives SBI access to Nomura's primary-issuance and distribution capabilities, with the platform operating as a shared utility rather than a single-firm rail. The structural alternative was for Nomura to build its own platform inside the bank-trust perimeter (the model MUFG followed with Progmat), but the joint-venture path produces a different shape: a brokerage-led platform with multi-shareholder governance and an explicit security-token focus rather than a stablecoin-plus-securities consortium.

On the Canton trial, the partnership cohort is Mizuho on the megabank side, JSCC on the central-counterparty side, and Digital Asset on the technology side. Nomura's role is closest to the dealer-and-distribution side, with the trial structured around primary issuance of tokenised JGBs onto Canton, JSCC handling the central-counterparty function, and Mizuho providing the second megabank counterparty for collateral movement. JPMorgan was named in earlier coverage of Japanese tokenised collateral work but is not a named participant in this specific trial.

Nomura's overseas digital-asset subsidiary, Laser Digital, sits operationally adjacent to but legally separate from the securities arm. Laser Digital covers the firm's institutional digital-asset trading, market-making, and venture investing footprint outside Japan. The crossover with the securities arm's tokenisation work runs at the group level rather than the deal level; Laser Digital has not been named as a counterparty on the Canton tokenised JGB trial or on BOOSTRY-issued products.

Regulatory perimeter

Nomura Securities operates under FSA Japan supervision through Nomura Securities Co., Ltd., the principal Japanese securities subsidiary of Nomura Holdings. Tokenisation activity under BOOSTRY sits inside the FIEA security-token regime, with the platform itself registered under the relevant Type II Financial Instruments Business and securities firm permissions. The Payment Innovation Project sandbox provides the supervisory channel for pre-production tokenisation pilots, and the April 2026 Canton trial is the most visible PIP graduation in current raw entries.

For prudential capital treatment of tokenised-asset positions on Nomura Securities' balance sheet, the Basel SCO60 standard applies, with the GHOS-endorsed March 2026 targeted review (see Basel Committee) the process to track. APAC presence puts the securities arm's regional offices inside MAS supervision in Singapore (Nomura Singapore Limited) and HKMA supervision in Hong Kong.

Recent activity

  • April 2026. Joint announcement with Mizuho, JSCC and Digital Asset of the Canton tokenised JGB collateral trial under the Payment Innovation Project sandbox.
  • BOOSTRY has continued to operate as the named platform for FIEA-route security-token issuance under joint Nomura-SBI ownership. Specific deal-by-deal issuance volumes for late 2025 and early 2026 are not consolidated in current raw entries.
  • Nomura has continued to be named in Project Guardian participant lists on tokenised structured-product workstreams. Workstream-level mandate detail is not consolidated in current raw entries.

Open questions

  • The cash-leg architecture on the April 2026 Canton tokenised JGB collateral trial: whether tokenised JPY runs as Progmat trust-issued instruments, as bank-issued tokenised deposits, or as another structure. Carried over from the existing Canton page.
  • BOOSTRY's aggregate outstanding-issuance figure across the platform's life and the product-by-product breakdown by asset class.
  • Whether BOOSTRY-issued security tokens are eligible as collateral in any of the JSCC or BOJ collateral programmes, or whether the collateral-eligibility surface remains limited to conventional securities.
  • The operating boundary between Nomura Securities and Laser Digital on tokenisation activity: whether Laser Digital takes any structured role in BOOSTRY-issued products distributed outside Japan.
  • Nomura Securities' specific Project Guardian workstream membership in Singapore and the named asset-manager counterparties.

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