ZIGChain Lands Nomura's Laser Digital as Investor and Risk Partner in a $100M Onchain Credit Push

Nomura's digital assets arm, Laser Digital, has invested $100 million in ZIGChain, a Layer 1 blockchain designed for regulated investment products. This partnership comes as onchain finance has solved the issue of getting capital onto blockchains, but the hard part remains finding credible assets to fund and underwriting them to bank standards.

ZIGChain aims to address this gap by partnering with Laser Digital to provide product structuring support, design risk frameworks, and join the governance of its vault products. The first product is expected to launch in the coming months, targeting a minimum of $100 million in total value locked. This unique deal is notable because it focuses on providing the risk apparatus of a firm regulated by Dubai's VARA and Abu Dhabi's ADGM FSRA, rather than a token launch or public raise.

ZIGChain's co-founder, Abdul Rafay Gadit, emphasized the importance of institutional credibility in the onchain finance space, where many protocols claim to have it but lack the real-world application. The market for onchain credit has grown, with tokenized private credit becoming a significant driver of yield, paying between 8 and 17 percent.

However, credible origination from emerging markets has been limited, leaving a credibility gap that ZIGChain and Laser Digital aim to fill. The partnership, which has been in the works for months, demonstrates a strategy where ZIGChain provides the pipeline of borrowers and Laser Digital brings the institutional risk frameworks needed to attract serious capital.

This collaboration marks a significant step in the development of onchain credit, particularly in emerging markets, where the capital is increasingly institutional but the pipeline feeding it has often lacked the necessary credibility.