Komainu, a regulated digital asset services provider and custodian backed by Laser Digital (a Nomura company), announced it has raised $75 million in strategic funding from Blockstream Capital Partners, subject to relevant regulatory approvals. This funding round enables Komainu to accelerate its international strategic growth plans whilst adopting and integrating class-leading technologies developed by Blockstream Corporation to maximize efficiencies and enhance client services in collateral management and tokenization.
The funding was innovative because it is funded in Bitcoin with appropriate hedging and risk management. Komainu established its own Bitcoin Treasury to manage the Bitcoin provided by Blockstream.
Blockstream Liquid Network will enable Komainu to dramatically cut the time for its off-exchange margining & settlement solution, Komainu Connect, from hours to minutes, becoming class-leading. And Blockstream’s AMP technology will enable Komainu to automate its regulated asset support for tokenization and develop trustless trading solutions. And Komainu will also integrate other technologies and services developed by Blockstream Corp, including its enterprise HSM wallet, to provide institutional clients with a broader range of bank-grade digital asset services.
In connection with the funding, Adam Back, PeterPaul Pardi, and Nicolas Brand will join Komainu’s board of directors.
KEY QUOTES:
“We are delighted that Komainu is adopting Blockstream’s various technology streams to enhance its institutional service offering. This is testament to the fundamental veracity of Bitcoin-related technologies and applications and marks the first time that these have entered the institutional arena. I am confident this will be the first of many such use cases as the institutional community wakes up to the power of the Lightning and Liquid Networks.”
- Adam Back, CEO Blockstream
“At Komainu, our mission is to empower the digital asset ecosystem by offering secure, compliant, and innovative digital asset services. This partnership with Blockstream will transform the services we are able to offer and enhance our customer experience on many levels. Having a closely-aligned technology partner like Blockstream, one of the original visionaries in the digital assets ecosystem, is testament to our determination to become the go-to provider of digital asset services for Bitcoin and the institutional market, as well as increasing institutional adoption.”
- Paul Frost-Smith, Co-CEO at Komainu, and who also joins Komainu’s board of directors
“This partnership with Komainu, backed by Nomura’s Laser Digital, is a landmark moment for the adoption of Bitcoin-related technology by a bank-built, regulated financial services business. It showcases the institutional use-cases for Bitcoin as demand reaches new highs. We are delighted that Komainu has chosen to implement Blockstream’s technology and we anticipate even wider uses for it in the institutional investor community over coming months.”
- PeterPaul Pardi, Director, Blockstream
“Integrating Blockstream’s technologies will significantly enhance and diversify our underlying core technology stacks. At Komainu we believe in offering our clients a wide choice of technology options and this partnership with Blockstream will maximise efficiencies and lower latencies across the various services that we offer.”
- Robert Johnson, Co-CEO & CTO at Komainu
