Laser Digital bought ZIG tokens and will structure and risk-govern a pipeline of vault products with ZIG Markets, which says it has originated more than $50 million with no defaults so far. The investment size was not disclosed.
Laser Digital, the digital assets arm of Japan’s Nomura Group, has taken a stake in ZIGChain’s ZIG token and agreed to structure and oversee risk on a pipeline of onchain private credit products built by ZIG Markets, the Layer 1’s product and access layer.
The arrangement puts a Nomura subsidiary in an underwriting seat for emerging-market private credit, a category that accounts for $7.12 billion of the $37.64 billion in tokenized real-world assets tracked by RWA.xyz.
Both firms describe institutional origination from emerging markets as thin relative to demand, with ZIG Markets supplying regional deal flow across the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan and Laser Digital supplying product structuring, risk framework design and governance.
Zero Defaults, Ten Months
ZIG Markets has originated more than $50 million to date with no defaults over the past ten 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 targeting a minimum of $100 million in total value locked across the vault products, broken into $25 million by September and $100 million by the end of November. Gadit said there is no hard deadline on either.
The first product is expected in roughly three weeks to a month, and the companies said co-branding on individual products will be confirmed separately as each nears launch.
Beyond private credit, the two say they will pursue PayFi, SME financing, invoice factoring and stablecoin-enabled products.
Retail In, Americans Out
Access will extend past professional investors. Gadit said the products will be distributed through exchanges, neobanks, wallets and DeFi protocols, and open to institutional and retail investors alike, with carve-outs for UN and OFAC sanctioned jurisdictions plus US and Russian residents.
That distinguishes the structure from most tokenized private credit, which is typically gated to accredited or professional investors, and puts weight on the licensing setup behind it.
Licensed In Johannesburg
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, with further structuring detail to come at launch.
Category II under the FAIS Act authorizes discretionary investment management. It does not authorize an FSP to hold client assets itself; the Code of Conduct for Discretionary FSPs requires a separately approved nominee company as registered holder and custodian.
ZIG Markets’ own terms say 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 holds a Financial Services Permission granted in June 2024 by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market, covering broker-dealer and asset management services in 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.”
Where The Token Fits
Laser Digital was the only investor in the round. The tokens came from a mix of open-market purchases and ZIGChain’s treasury, Gadit said, with the treasury portion locked for two years. Neither side disclosed the amount or the token price, and both said the deal is neither a new token launch nor a change of control.
ZIG’s link 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,” Gadit 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 sets out the mechanism in a flow diagram: 50% of ZIG Markets’ monthly revenue goes to open-market ZIG purchases, and half the tokens acquired are put to a stake-weighted validator vote on burning them, with the remainder routed to an ecosystem pool.
The document’s text commits to no fixed share, saying ZIG Markets “may allocate a portion of its gross revenue” toward ZIG initiatives, subject to treasury policy and commercial considerations. The governance vote covers the burn rather than the buyback.
ZIG traded at $0.0444 following the announcement, up 10% on the day, for a market capitalization of $62.9 million on 24-hour volume of $5.1 million, according to CoinGecko. The token is down 54% over the past year.
A $6 Million Chain
The $100 million target sits well above what ZIGChain currently holds. DefiLlama puts the chain’s TVL at $6.5 million, down from $7.8 million a month ago, a figure that excludes liquid staking; Valdora Finance, a liquid staking protocol, holds a further $36.2 million. The chain’s two real-world asset protocols, Nawa Protocol and Defa by InvoiceMate, hold $4.1 million and $2.1 million respectively.
Laser Digital adds to a run of institutional tie-ups. ZIGChain announced a partnership with Beehive, the DFSA-regulated Dubai crowdfunding lender owned by e&, in April to explore tokenizing UAE SME credit, and the 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, on stablecoin settlement for tokenized receivables and private credit. ZIGChain also has a regulated fund tie-up with Apex Group.
Private credit has led the tokenization push as institutions moved into onchain real-world assets, with Wall Street firms treating RWAs as their entry point to crypto.
Be the first to comment