Laser Digital, the digital-assets arm of Japan’s Nomura Group, has taken a stake in ZIGChain’s ZIG token and agreed to structure products and oversee risk for a pipeline of onchain private-credit offerings being built by ZIG Markets, the Layer 1 network’s product and access layer.
The setup places a Nomura subsidiary in an underwriting role for emerging-market private credit. RWA.xyz tracks that segment at $7.12 billion out of $37.64 billion in tokenized real-world assets.
Emerging-market deal flow is central to the arrangement
Both companies said institutional origination from emerging markets remains thin relative to demand. Under the division of labor they described, ZIG Markets will supply regional deal flow across the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan, while Laser Digital will handle product structuring, risk-framework design and governance.
More than $50 million originated, with no defaults in 10 months
ZIG Markets has originated more than $50 million to date and has seen no defaults over the last 10 months, according to Abdul Rafay Gadit, co-founder and chief commercial officer of ZIGChain. Gadit told The Defiant: “We’re past $50 million originated at this point. And zero defaults on that book over the last ten months, which we’re genuinely proud of, but we also know ten months isn’t a full cycle, so we’re not going to pretend that number means the job’s done.”
ZIGChain is aiming for at least $100 million in total value locked across the vault products. The target is split into $25 million by September and $100 million by the end of November, though Gadit said neither date is a hard deadline.
The first product is expected to arrive in roughly three weeks to a month. The companies also said co-branding on specific products will be decided separately as each launch approaches.
Private credit is only one part of the plan
Beyond private credit, the two companies said they will also pursue PayFi, SME financing, invoice factoring and stablecoin-enabled products.
Retail access is planned, but US and Russian residents are excluded
Access will extend beyond professional investors. Gadit said the products will be distributed through exchanges, neobanks, wallets and DeFi protocols, and will be open to both institutional and retail investors.
There are carve-outs, however, for UN- and OFAC-sanctioned jurisdictions, as well as residents of the United States and Russia.
That makes the structure stand apart from most tokenized private-credit products, which are usually restricted to accredited or professional investors. It also puts more focus on the licensing framework behind the offering.
Licensing runs through South Africa, Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Gadit said ZIG Markets operates under Category I and Category II licenses from South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority, covering fund management, brokerage and custody. He added that more detail on the structure will be disclosed at launch.
Under the FAIS Act, a Category II license authorizes discretionary investment management. It does not allow a financial services provider to hold client assets directly. The Code of Conduct for Discretionary FSPs requires a separately approved nominee company to act as registered holder and custodian.
ZIG Markets’ own terms state that custody and fund management “are performed solely by and remain the responsibility of appropriately licensed and regulated entities, authorized counterparties, custodians.”
Laser Digital is registered with Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority and also holds a Financial Services Permission granted in June 2024 by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market. That permission covers broker-dealer and asset-management services across both virtual and traditional assets.
“We have been watching this category and while the opportunity in onchain finance is real, execution risk has been consistently underestimated,” said Jez Mohideen, co-founder and CEO of Laser Digital. “ZIG Markets brings regional depth and an origination track record, and as an investor and partner, our role is to apply the same higher standards of institutional risk frameworks we use across our broader offerings.”
How the ZIG token is tied to the business
Laser Digital was the only investor in the round. Gadit said the tokens came from a mix of open-market purchases and ZIGChain’s treasury, with the treasury portion locked for two years.
Neither side disclosed the investment amount or the token price. Both said the transaction is neither a new token launch nor a change of control.
Gadit said the token’s connection to the business runs through revenue. “Following the latest update to our tokenomics, a share of revenue gets directed toward acquiring $ZIG, and that’s a governance decision, not something automatic,” he said. “Every time we land a partnership like this one, it’s adding revenue, and that revenue is what drives real demand for the token.”
ZIGChain’s Tokenomics 2.0 whitepaper lays out the mechanism in a flow chart: 50% of ZIG Markets’ monthly revenue goes to open-market ZIG purchases, and half of the acquired tokens are submitted to a stake-weighted validator vote on whether they should be burned. The rest goes to an ecosystem pool.
The text of the document is less absolute. It does not commit to a fixed share, saying ZIG Markets “may allocate a portion of its gross revenue” to ZIG-related initiatives, subject to treasury policy and commercial considerations. The governance vote applies to the burn decision, not the buyback itself.
ZIG rose 10% after the announcement, but remains down 54% on the year
According to CoinGecko, ZIG traded at $0.0444 after the announcement, up 10% on the day. The token had a market capitalization of $62.9 million and 24-hour trading volume of $5.1 million. It is still down 54% over the past year.
The $100 million target is far above current chain figures
ZIGChain’s $100 million target sits well above the network’s current scale. DefiLlama puts the chain’s TVL at $6.5 million, down from $7.8 million a month earlier. That figure excludes liquid staking.
Valdora Finance, a liquid-staking protocol, holds another $36.2 million. ZIGChain’s two real-world-asset protocols, Nawa Protocol and Defa by InvoiceMate, hold $4.1 million and $2.1 million respectively.
Laser Digital joins a run of institutional partnerships
Laser Digital’s involvement adds to a recent string of institutional tie-ups around ZIGChain. In April, ZIGChain announced a partnership with Beehive, the Dubai crowdfunding lender owned by e& and regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority, to explore tokenizing UAE SME credit.
That same month, Swiss custody firm Taurus added native ZIG support to its Taurus-PROTECT custody product for banks and professional investors. In July, ZIG Markets signed a memorandum of understanding with ADI Chain, the institutional blockchain of the IHC-backed ADI Foundation, focused on stablecoin settlement for tokenized receivables and private credit.
ZIGChain also has a regulated fund partnership with Apex Group.
Private credit remains one of tokenization’s leading segments
Private credit has been at the front of the tokenization push as institutions move real-world assets onchain. Wall Street firms have treated RWAs as an entry point into crypto.