Nomura-Backed Komainu to Offer Segregated Crypto Collateral Product for Institutions

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Komainu, the cryptocurrency custody joint venture of Nomura, Ledger and CoinShares, is offering institutional clients a regulated and segregated collateral management product.

The offering aims to capitalize on the need for more matured crypto infrastructure in the wake of such failures as the FTX exchange.

Komainu Connect is intended to let clients deploy their digital assets in collateralization scenarios while they remain in segregated custody, verifiable on-chain, the company said in a press release on Monday.

Following the iniquitous events of last year, many players see regulation accelerating and the digital asset value chain requiring segregation. In effect, this means custodians should stick to custody and an exchange shouldn’t be a custodian or a prime broker or a broker dealer, according to Komainu’s head of strategy, Sebastian Widmann.

“The focus of Komainu from day one was to stay in the custodial space and not take counterparty risk offering trading services or lending services,” Widmann said in an interview. “Our new collateral management service allows clients to have specific wallets within Komainu with visibility to third-party liquidity providers and exchanges for trading on venue, with Komainu really doing the settlement.”

Komainu has also scaled up its staking service to coincide with the much-anticipated Ethereum Shanghai hard fork on April 12. Beyond Ethereum, initial tokens supported on Komainu’s platform are SOL, DOT and XTZ, the company said.