Nomura tightens crypto positions after volatility dents Europe unit

The shift in risk posture comes as Nomura reported a year-on-year decline in quarterly profit, with expenses related to its acquisition of investment management assets from Macquarie weighing on results even as revenue rose across its core business lines. Nomura’s finance leadership linked the crypto pullback to short-term profit swings and losses in the European digital-asset business during the quarter, describing stricter controls on positions and risk exposure as a way to dampen volatility in reported earnings.

Laser Digital, which Nomura spun out in 2022 as its digital-asset arm, has operated across trading and investment activities, leaving its results sensitive to crypto price shocks and liquidity conditions. The company’s decision to tighten exposure effectively shifts the focus from maximizing trading upside to limiting downside drawdowns during fast market moves, particularly when prices gap and hedges become more expensive or less available.

The timing matters because the broader digital-asset market has been prone to abrupt, leverage-driven repricing, and risk managers typically respond by lowering gross and net exposure, shrinking concentration limits, and tightening stop-loss and margin parameters. In practice, that can mean smaller inventories held on balance sheet, more conservative value-at-risk targets, and shorter holding periods, with less tolerance for directional bets that can whipsaw in thin liquidity. Nomura characterized the approach as temporary, framing it as a response to the current market climate rather than a retreat from the sector.

Tight stance sits alongside a parallel effort to broaden Laser Digital’s regulatory footprint. Separately, the Nomura-backed unit has pursued a US banking-style authorization via an application for a national bank trust charter, a structure that would allow it to operate under a federal framework rather than seeking state-by-state permissions for certain activities. The application does not indicate deposit-taking, but it would support a more institutional operating setup for custody and spot digital-asset services if approved.

Nomura’s quarter illustrated the tension facing large financial groups building crypto businesses inside traditional earnings structures: trading and investment opportunities can be meaningful, but crypto volatility can also inject noise into results, especially when positions are held in regions or entities that report separately. By tightening exposure management after a quarter marked by losses in its European operations linked partly to digital-asset market conditions, Nomura is signaling a preference for steadier, more controllable risk while it continues building longer-term infrastructure and licensing pathways for its digital-asset strategy.