Brokerage giant Nomura starts offering Asian clients BTC derivatives

Japanese financial services company Nomura Holdings has rolled out Bitcoin (BTC) derivatives for Asian institutional clients. A report unveiled this news earlier today, noting that the leading brokerage firm decided to introduce this offering following high institutional demand. This development marks the latest move by a traditional financial institution into crypto.

According to the report, Nomura will offer BTC non-deliverable forwards and non-deliverable choices settled in fiats. Cumberland DRW, a crypto trading firm, completed Nomura’s first BTC derivatives trade this week on CME Group’s platform.

Tim Albers, Nomura’s Head of Foreign Exchange Structuring in Asia ex-Japan, commented,

“There has been significant volatility recently. Once the dust settles, valuations will become more attractive for institutional clients. We’re pretty excited to get this off the ground” as the launch “marks the start of our journey into the space” for the global markets business.”

Notably, this launch comes as the crypto market stages a comeback after crashing earlier this week. BTC traded as low as $26,350 this past Thursday. At the time of writing, the flagship crypto is changing hands at $29,457.70, 11.8% higher.

Nomura continues strengthening its crypto strategy

Nomura’s BTC derivatives offering comes after the company announced plans to change its Future Innovation Company into a newly created Digital Company.

At the time, Nomura President and Group CEO Kentaro Okuda said,

“This is an important next step in our digital evolution. Digital technology is a critical part of our strategic drive to expand our operations in private markets. The new Digital Company will lead deeper collaboration among internal and external stakeholders, accelerate our uptake of digital technologies, and enhance our client services.”

Before this, Nomura launched crypto custody services for institutional investors. The custody platform is Komainu, and it supports BTC, Ether (ETH), and a slew of other large-cap cryptos. Earlier this year, Komainu appointed former London Metal Exchange CEO Matthew Chamberlain as its new CEO.

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