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Komainu, a hybrid custodian created by the Japanese investment bank Nomura, has secured provisional regulatory approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority [VARA].
With this approval, Komainu, which specialises in custody solutions to safeguard digital assets for financial institutions, will be amongst the first fully regulated digital asset custody services for institutional clients in the region.
In 2018, Komainu was created as a joint venture between global investment bank Nomura, digital asset security firm Ledger, and digital asset investment house CoinShares. Headquartered in Jersey, Channel Islands, Komainu closed a $25 million Series A fundraising in 2021.
"Komainu acts as key gatekeeper to institutions gaining exposure to the digital asset industry with the provision of secure and regulated digital asset custody services for blockchain," the custodian said in a statement.
Sebastian Widmann, Head of Strategy at Komainu, said: "By expanding into the MENA region, we are bringing a much-needed service to institutions operating within a regulated crypto marketplace. We are excited to bring Komainu Yield as well as the other new services set to launch in the near future to this marketplace and thereby serve a new demographic of institutions."
UAE has been successful in attracting some of the biggest crypto and fintech firms. Binance the world's largest crypto exchange was given a license from VARA in March. Two weeks back, Global crypto currency exchange OKX has secured a provisional virtual-asset license in Dubai.
(Reporting by Seban Scaria; editing by Daniel Luiz)
