Komainu

Komainu bills itself as "The Institutional Gateway for Digital Assets" -- a description that cuts to the core of what distinguishes it from most custodians. Rather than serving retail or mid-market crypto users, Komainu was purpose-built for banks, pension funds, asset managers, corporations, and government agencies that need a regulated, auditable, and operationally robust home for digital assets.

Origins and Founders

Komainu was established in 2018 as a joint venture between three institutions whose specialties fit together like interlocking pieces: Nomura, Japan's largest investment bank, contributed institutional relationships and capital markets credibility; CoinShares, the European digital asset investment manager, brought crypto-native market expertise; and Ledger, the hardware security firm, supplied the cryptographic security architecture. The three partners spent roughly two years building and licensing the platform before officially launching to the broader market in June 2020.

The venture originated from a straightforward observation: traditional institutional investors wanted exposure to digital assets but could not credibly hold them without a custodian that met their existing governance and regulatory standards. Commercial crypto custody at the time was either exchange-operated -- placing assets inside counterparty risk -- or technically immature relative to what large institutions required. Komainu was designed to fill that gap, producing a custodian whose DNA comes from traditional finance rather than crypto-native culture.

Custody Technology and Asset Coverage

Komainu's custody infrastructure combines MPC (multi-party computation) and HSM (hardware security module) wallet architectures, a deliberate diversification strategy. Each client's assets are held in segregated, on-chain wallets, which means custody can be verified independently on the blockchain rather than relying solely on the custodian's internal records. This on-chain transparency supports bankruptcy remoteness: client assets are demonstrably separate from Komainu's own balance sheet.

The platform covers more than 40 native blockchains and over 6,000 tokens. Solana (SOL) is explicitly listed among supported assets, alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, XRP, Tezos, and a growing list of tokenized products including stETH, BUIDL, and PAXG. Stablecoins USDC, USDT, USDe, and USYC are also supported. The breadth reflects institutional demand: institutions rarely hold a single asset, and a custodian covering only a narrow slice of the market forces clients to fragment their holdings across providers.

Operational controls include bank-style maker/checker workflows, a customizable risk engine, Travel Rule compliance tooling, and a reporting portal that generates data for treasury and accounting teams.

Staking Services for Proof-of-Stake Assets

For assets on proof-of-stake networks, Komainu offers custodial staking -- clients earn blockchain rewards without ever moving assets out of segregated custody. On Solana, this means SOL remains in the client's on-chain wallet while Komainu's automated delegation engine assigns stake to vetted validator operators and reinvests rewards.

Komainu has established staking partnerships with Kiln, Figment, Blockdaemon, Twinstake, and P2P.org -- five infrastructure providers with established track records across the major PoS networks. The platform reports an excellent slashing record, which matters particularly to institutions with fiduciary obligations and risk committees that treat slashing as an operationally unacceptable loss event. Supported staking assets include SOL, ETH, DOT, XTZ, POL, HYPE, ADA, and ATOM, with the list expanding over time.

Komainu Connect: Off-Exchange Collateral Management

One of Komainu's most commercially distinctive products is Komainu Connect, a collateral management solution that allows assets to remain in segregated custody while being used as collateral for trading, borrowing, or lending through partner networks. The product addresses a structural problem in institutional crypto markets: counterparty risk on centralized exchanges. When an institution places margin or collateral directly on an exchange, those assets are exposed to exchange insolvency or misuse.

With Komainu Connect, the exchange receives the economic benefit of the collateral without ever taking custody of it. CoinShares and OKX were among the first to use this structure in a live arrangement, with CoinShares executing round-the-clock trading on OKX while its collateral remained in Komainu's segregated custody. Blockstream, Komainu's Series B strategic investor, is integrating its Liquid Network to reduce settlement times on Komainu Connect from hours to minutes -- a material improvement for active institutional trading desks.

Tokenization Infrastructure

Komainu's tokenization offering, branded Komainu CORE, provides custody and governance infrastructure for tokenized finance. Aviva Investors selected Komainu as the infrastructure partner for its tokenized USD Liquidity Fund share class -- an early institutional example of a traditional asset manager distributing a fund product on-chain with regulated custody underneath it. Komainu also added custody support for YLDS, the SEC-registered yield-bearing security issued by Figure Certificate Company.

Regulatory Footprint

Regulatory licensing is the backbone of Komainu's value proposition. Its regulatory history runs from early in its life: the Jersey Financial Services Commission licensed Komainu in 2019, before the platform even publicly launched. Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority granted a VARA license in 2023, expanding Komainu's presence in the Middle East. In 2025, Komainu obtained registration with the UK Financial Conduct Authority and approval on Italy's OAM registry.

This multi-jurisdictional posture matters because institutional investors in different regions face different compliance constraints. A European pension fund, a Gulf sovereign wealth fund, and a UK asset manager may each require their custodian to operate under a specific regulatory framework. Komainu's licenses allow it to serve all three from appropriately regulated entities.

Funding and Investors

Komainu raised a $25 million Series A in February 2024, led by Alan Howard's Elwood Asset Management, with participation from Galaxy Digital, NOIA Capital, and Nomura Research Institute. The founding three -- Nomura, CoinShares, and Ledger -- also participated in the round.

In January 2025, Komainu closed a $75 million Series B with Blockstream Capital Partners as the strategic investor. The transaction was structured unusually: the investment was funded in Bitcoin, with Komainu establishing its own Bitcoin Treasury to manage the BTC provided. Blockstream co-founder Adam Back joined Komainu's board alongside PeterPaul Pardi and Nicolas Brand, deepening the technological partnership around Bitcoin infrastructure.

Leadership

Komainu is led by Co-CEOs Paul Frost-Smith and Robert Johnson. Frost-Smith, who joined in May 2024, has over 30 years in international financial markets including JPMorgan, Credit Suisse, and Swiss Re. Johnson joined in October 2023, having previously served as CTO and Partner at Coremont after 18 years on MUFG Securities' trading floor. CFO Tony Larkin is a chartered accountant with over 30 years in investment banking across London, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

The board includes Adam Back of Blockstream and Steve Ashley of Laser Digital, giving Komainu connections to both Bitcoin infrastructure and Nomura's digital asset arm. Head of Dubai Sebastian Widmann previously worked in Nomura's digital assets division, maintaining continuity with the founding institutional relationship.

Solana Context

Solana's relevance to Komainu is straightforward. As institutional adoption of Solana grows -- across real-world asset issuance, stablecoin settlement, DeFi, and on-chain fund distribution -- the institutions doing that work need a regulated custodian who can hold SOL and related assets. Komainu's explicit SOL custody support, combined with custodial staking (earning staking rewards without relinquishing custody) and Komainu Connect (using SOL as off-exchange collateral), positions it as a credible institutional infrastructure provider for the Solana ecosystem. Its track record, from a Nomura-Ledger-CoinShares founding to FCA registration and over $100 million in institutional fundraising, places it in the small group of custodians with the regulatory and technical standing that large institutional investors actually require.