Nomura-Backed Laser Digital Launches Institutional-Focused Polygon Adoption Fund
Designed to offer institutional investors seamless exposure to new blockchain-based opportunities, the fund draws on the expertise of Nomura’s digital asset subsidiary, Laser Digital, and TruFin—an institutional-grade protocol incubated by WebN.
London, 27th March 2024 Laser Digital, Nomura’s digital asset subsidiary, is launching a new venture in collaboration with blockchain protocol TruFin, a WebN incubated company. This initiative leverages Polygon’s Aggregation Layer (AggLayer) to transform the network’s liquidity potential in the digital economy into an investment opportunity in the analog economy, by introducing the Laser Digital Polygon Adoption Fund (“Fund”). The Fund is set to provide institutional investors with exposure to Polygon-MATIC, the native gas and staking token for the Polygon proof of stake (PoS) protocol — one of the most widely used EVM-compatible sidechains for Ethereum. The Fund will also tap into native staking rewards via TruFin’s TruStake liquid staking solution.
The Fund seeks to offer traditional investors a familiar interface while providing security for the Polygon protocols through the act of staking, which allows participants to earn yield from regulating and validating cryptocurrency transactions. It is specifically tailored for sovereign wealth funds, institutional funds, and private asset managers. Institutional investors are beginning to understand the benefits and necessity of decentralized security, and this Fund shows that institutions are compelled by the broader ecosystem.
The Fund will be bolstered by TruFin’s Trustake protocol, allowing additional yield to be captured through liquid staking opportunities via the underlying TruMATIC token. With a focus on enterprise-grade security, TruStake offers a liquid staking solution tailored for institutional investors that aims to deliver a higher native yield compared to direct staking (~5%). The TruStake vault has consistently outperformed Lido, achieving a historic native MATIC yield of over 5% APY in the past 9 months.
With the flexibility to leverage tokens for additional DeFi yield, institutional investors seek a hassle-free investment avenue for passive staking rewards. TruFin has partnered with leading DeFi protocols like Balancer and Chainlink to maximize utility for the underlying TruMATIC token.
By integrating the Polygon AggLayer, the Fund leverages the aggregation of Zero-Knowledge (ZK) proofs from all connected chains, aiming to ensure high liquidity, near-instant cross-chain transactions, and uniform cryptographic security. This integration aims to enhance the Fund’s operational efficiency on a highly performant network while leveraging the Ethereum network’s robust security and decentralization credentials.
Leveraged by Laser Digital’s institutional regulatory set-up, the Fund will be available, following the relevant registrations, for distribution to institutional investors across eligible jurisdictions, starting with the United Kingdom.
The Laser Digital Polygon Adoption Fund is a collaborative effort to merge traditional financial structures with the innovative potential of blockchain technology.
“Laser Digital Asset Management aims to transform DeFi investment opportunities into investable TradFi solutions. Leveraging TruFin technology and its integration with Polygon’s AggLayer, we are making Polygon-Matic digital asset investment accessible, in the most secure, and efficient way for institutional investors,” said Sebastien Guglietta, Head of Laser Digital Asset Management.
“Our partnership with Laser Digital to launch this Fund advances our vision for the future of the digital asset ecosystem. The use of Polygon’s AggLayer technology has proven to be remarkably promising to support our ability to provide a seamless, secure, and institutionally-focused yield-generating investment platform.” Matt Molloy, Venture Lead at WebN Group.
“Staking MATIC contributes significantly to the robustness and security of the Polygon network. Institutional investors’ involvement in this Proof-of-Stake system exemplifies the network’s strength and dedication to sustainable blockchain practices. This collective effort plays a key role in upholding the network’s stability and advancing the Polygon ecosystem’s position as a leader in Web3 technology.” said Colin Butler, Global Head of Institutional Capital at Polygon.
For more information, please contact:
Ellis Ballard – ellis@clpr.agency
About TruFin
The TruFin Protocol builds institutional-grade Web3 primitives, such as liquid staking, that can be used as the foundational building blocks for digital asset strategies to reduce risk, generate rewards, securely on-chain.
For more information, please visit: https://trufin.io/
About Laser Digital
Laser Digital is a crypto business redefining the frontier of digital finance. Backed by Nomura, Laser Digital delivers scalable, robust opportunities across trading, asset management, and ventures. The team works at higher risk management standards, compliance, and commercial viability, all driven by a belief in more responsible crypto innovation. With an open and dynamic culture, Laser Digital has the freedom to adapt to market needs, to move swiftly to capitalisation, and to share learnings with clients and partners –bringing greater confidence to the institutional market for the benefit of all.
For more information, please visit: https://www.laserdigital.com/
Laser Digital UK Ltd, FRN 1000108, is an appointed representative of Strata Global Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, FRN 563834. Strata Global Ltd is registered in England & Wales with company number 07707508 and whose registered office is at 7-11 Moorgate, London EC2R 6AF
About Polygon Labs
Polygon Labs develops Ethereum scaling solutions for Polygon protocols. Polygon Labs engages with other ecosystem developers to help make available scalable, affordable, secure and sustainable blockchain infrastructure for Web3. Polygon Labs has initially developed a growing suite of protocols for developers to gain easy access to major scaling solutions, including layer 2s (zero-knowledge rollups), sidechains, app-specific chains and data availability protocols. Scaling solutions that Polygon Labs initially developed have seen widespread adoption with tens of thousands of decentralized apps, unique addresses exceeding 320 million, 1.5 million smart contracts created and 2.9 billion total transactions processed since inception. The existing Polygon network is home for some of the biggest Web3 projects, such as Aave, Uniswap, and OpenSea, and well-known enterprises, including Robinhood, Stripe and Adobe. Polygon Labs is carbon neutral with the goal of leading Web3 in becoming carbon negative.
If you’re an Ethereum Developer, you’re already a Polygon developer! Leverage Polygon’s fast and secure transactions for dApps you develop, get started here.
Website | Twitter | Developer Twitter | Telegram | LinkedIn | Reddit | Discord | Instagram | Facebook
Marketing communication: This document is a marketing communication addressed exclusively to professional and institutional investors residing in eligible jurisdictions. This document is not a contractually binding document or an information document required by any legislative provision, and is not sufficient to take an investment decision. Please consult the offering documentation of the Fund before making any final investment decisions. You can request this information to the investment manager, whose details are indicated below.
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*UAE (excluding ADGM and DIFC): In the UAE (excluding ADGM and DIFC), this document is issued by Laser Digital Middle East FZE (“LDME” or “We”). LDME is the investment manager of the Fund and is authorised and regulated by the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (“VARA”) with registered number VL/23/06/001. We are registered in Dubai, and only deal with or for Qualified Investors and Institutional Investors as defined by VARA. Our registered office is located at One Central, Office 3, Level 5, Unit 512, Dubai, UAE. Additional information on LDME and the relevant regulatory disclosures may be found at https://www.laserdigital.com/laser-digital-middle-east. The information contained herein, does not constitute, and is not intended to constitute, a public offer of securities in the United Arab Emirates (“UAE”) and accordingly should not be construed as such. The shares are only being offered to a limited number of exempt investors in the UAE who (a) are willing and able to conduct an independent investigation of the risks involved in an investment in such shares, and (b) upon their specific request. The shares have not been approved by or licensed or registered with the UAE Central Bank, the Securities and Commodities Authority, or any other relevant licensing authorities or governmental agencies in the UAE. No transaction will be concluded in the UAE and any enquiries regarding the Shares should be made to Laser Digital UK Ltd at 1 Angel Lane, London, EC4R 3AB.
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