Nomura Backed Service Komainu Gets $75M Bitcoin Funding – Ledger Insights

Cominothe institutional cryptocurrency custodian has received $75 million in strategic funding from Blockstreama specialized Bitcoin developer. The digital asset custody company is a joint venture between Nomura Digital laserand security company Ledger and asset management Coinshares. We believe the recent financing was a $25 million Series A A round in 2021 led by Alan Howard of Elwood Asset Management.

The investment is in the form of Bitcoin and Komainu will hold Bitcoin as part of his treasury, with appropriate hedging.

Following the funding, Komainu will adopt several Bitcoin-related Blockstream technologies. One is Liquid networka Bitcoin sidechain aimed at issuing a security token that has been around for years. Blockstream itself has used it for issuances, as has Bitfinex, the cryptocurrency exchange linked to Tether. When El Salvador issued A Bitcoin BondThe liquid is used. In addition, in 2021 Daiwa Securities I tried issuing corporate bonds online.

Liquid network vs. Accelerated network

Liquid mesh should not be confused with Lightning network It is also a Bitcoin Layer 2 solution, which is used for payments. In fact, Blockstream has its own implementation of the accelerator network, Core Lightning.

Komainu plans to use Liquid Network to solve OTC margin and settlement, Comino connection. It is believed that it will significantly reduce the timing from hours to minutes. Connect provides three-party agreements similar to traditional financing (TradFi). This avoids the need for clients to move assets to exchanges and means that Komainu confirms to the trading venue that assets are held in a separate account.

“I’m confident this will be the first of many such use cases as the enterprise community wakes up to the power of fast networking and liquid networks,” said Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream.

Additionally, Komainu will adopt Blockstream AMP that enables users to tokenize assets by connecting to the Liquid Network via APIs. The custodian will also integrate other Blockstream technologies, including its enterprise HSM.

“At Komainu, we believe in providing our customers with a broad range of technology options, and this partnership with Blockstream will increase efficiencies and reduce response time across the diverse services we offer,” said Robert Johnson, Co-CEO and CTO of Komainu.

Meanwhile, Komainu in October expanded its presence from the UK and UAE to Singapore with Propane acquisition.