What are the common challenges startups face in equity tokenisation?

The most common challenges include navigating FCA regulatory requirements, selecting the right tokenisation platform, structuring the legal framework for tokenised equity, educating investors unfamiliar with digital securities, and ensuring compliance with the UK Digital Securities Sandbox rules.

What are tokenisation platforms and how do they work?

Tokenisation platforms are regulated technology providers that convert equity or other assets into digital tokens on a blockchain or distributed ledger. In the UK, platforms operating under FCA oversight include those participating in the Digital Securities Sandbox. They handle the technical issuance, custody, and transfer of tokenised securities.

What financial insights should founders know before tokenising equity?

Founders should understand the cost structure of tokenisation (legal, platform, and compliance fees), the valuation implications of fractional ownership, how tokenised equity differs from traditional equity crowdfunding, and the tax treatment of digital securities under UK law.

What investor strategies apply to tokenised equity?

Investors in tokenised equity can benefit from fractional ownership of high-value assets, improved liquidity through secondary market trading on regulated platforms, portfolio diversification across early-stage UK startups, and participation in deals previously accessible only to institutional investors.

What is the UK regulatory landscape for equity tokenisation?

The UK regulatory landscape is governed primarily by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) and HM Treasury. Key frameworks include the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS), and ongoing FCA consultations on the treatment of tokenised securities. The UK is positioning itself as a global leader in regulated digital securities.

What is equity tokenisation?

Equity tokenisation is the process of converting ownership rights in a company into digital tokens recorded on a blockchain or distributed ledger. These tokens represent shares or equity stakes and can be transferred, traded, or held digitally, subject to regulatory compliance. In the UK, tokenised equity is treated as a regulated financial instrument under FCA oversight.

Laser Digital Wins Conditional Approval for a US Digital Asset Trust Bank

Shawn Jhanji
Jun 3
2 min read

The institutional custody race in digital assets has a significant new entrant. Laser Digital, the digital asset subsidiary of Japanese banking group Nomura, has received conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Laser Digital National Trust Bank, a de novo national trust bank that will provide multi asset fiduciary trust and custody services to institutional clients.

It is the first time a subsidiary of a Japanese financial institution has secured this kind of US approval, and it tells UK founders and investors something important about where the digital asset market is heading: the world's largest traditional finance houses are no longer experimenting at the edges. They are applying for banking charters.

What the approval covers

The newly approved entity will operate under federal supervision as a wholly owned subsidiary of Laser Digital. The mandate is deliberately narrow. The bank cannot take deposits or lend. Instead it will focus on fiduciary trust and custody services for institutions, including moving funds between fiat money, stablecoins and cryptoassets, facilitating cross border payments, and providing collateral management for crypto and non crypto transactions.

Final authorisation to open remains contingent on Laser Digital satisfying the OCC's pre opening conditions. The firm applied for the charter in January 2026 and secured conditional approval inside five months.

The pattern behind the headline

This is the latest move in a custody and infrastructure land grab that has been accelerating all year. Securitize won approval to custody tokenised securities. The SEC has just registered Paxos as the first blockchain native clearing agency. The OCC has been granting digital asset charters at a pace that would have been unthinkable two years ago.

Custody is the gateway service. Institutions will not hold tokenised assets at scale until they can hold them with a regulated, federally supervised counterparty, and every firm that secures that status early builds a moat. Nomura clearly believes the institutional demand justifies the regulatory investment, and a major Japanese bank making that bet through the front door of the US banking system is a strong adoption signal in itself.

The UK angle

For the UK ecosystem the question is familiar: where is the British equivalent?

London has credible digital asset custodians and a regulator that has now published its tokenisation roadmap, but the US is converting applications into charters while UK firms largely wait on consultations. For UK startups building custody, compliance and infrastructure services, the US precedents are both a competitive warning and a template.

The firms that will anchor the supplier directories of this sector in five years are being licensed now.

Key takeaways

Laser Digital, Nomura's digital asset arm, has conditional OCC approval to establish a US national trust bank for institutional digital asset custody
The bank will not take deposits or lend, focusing instead on fiduciary custody, cross border payments and collateral management across fiat, stablecoins and cryptoassets
It is the first US approval of its kind for a subsidiary of a Japanese financial institution
The approval continues a clear 2026 pattern: regulated custody and settlement infrastructure is being built and licensed at speed in the US
UK firms and policymakers should treat the pace of US chartering as a benchmark, not background noise