Coinshares launches digital asset custody business

The CoinShares Group (CoinShares) has launched of Komainu, a digital asset custody business for institutional investors, under the leadership of CoinShares' CEO, Jean-Marie Mognetti. The joint venture between CoinShares' parent company, Nomura, and Ledger will expand and strengthen CoinShares' operations across asset management, advisory, and capital markets.

After an extensive review of the custody products on the market, CoinShares determined there were no existing products built to meet its security standards or the needs of its business –  enter Komainu. To develop an institutional-grade custody business, CoinShares found partners in Ledger, the most trusted hardware wallet company, and Nomura, one of the world's largest and most trusted banks. Together the team built Komainu, the first hybrid institutional-grade custody platform that could seamlessly integrate with legacy financial technology.

Meltem Demirors, Chief Strategy Officer of CoinShares, commented on the news, "As pioneers in this space we find ourselves playing a role in creating the critical infrastructure needed to bring digital asset investing to the forefront of the financial industry. It was critical to collaborate with Ledger, creator of the most widely used wallets in the industry, and Nomura, a leading investment bank, to ensure that Komainu provides best in class financial services with the enterprise-level security needed to promote institutional acceptance of the digital asset class."    

In the short span of just a few months, the digital asset industry has rapidly evolved, with cryptocurrency firms building vertically integrated solutions for the digital asset market, which merge various aspects of the trade lifecycle into one platform. CoinShares led this evolution within their own ecosystem, creating a unified screen for its trading team to facilitate connecting to trade execution across venues from the beginning. CoinShares created these capabilities internally out of necessity, but with more institutional investors entering the space, CoinShares now offers this electronic connectivity to the broader market, and several fintech and trading firms are following suit to provide a similar offering. Komainu elevates CoinShares' current market footprint by bringing together banking, asset management, and cyber-security expertise.