Moving from Concept to Reality

From the Komainu perspective, how is the firm working to bridge the gap between traditional financial markets (such as SBL) and the digital asset ecosystem? What benefits can this unlock for your clients and the industry?

Komainu has been building institutional-grade digital asset infrastructure since 2018. What started as securing crypto assets quickly evolved into bringing utility to those assets while in custody, through collateral management and off-exchange settlement solutions. That infrastructure has become the foundation for bridging traditional and digital markets.

Traditional finance has always relied on trusted market infrastructure, custodians, central securities depositories, clearing houses, and prime brokers, to enable securities borrowing and lending (SBL), collateral management, and efficient capital allocation.

Digital assets have matured rapidly as an asset class, but the supporting infrastructure has often lagged behind institutional expectations around security, governance, regulatory compliance, and operational efficiency. Komainu’s role is to bring the standards and disciplines of a traditional custodian into the digital asset ecosystem, while leveraging the advantages of distributed ledger technology (DLT).

This matters increasingly as financial assets become tokenised. As bonds, funds, and equities move on-chain, the distinction between traditional and digital markets begins to disappear.

Institutions will expect to use tokenised assets as collateral, lend and borrow against them, and settle in near real time. For institutions, this convergence unlocks real commercial opportunity. Capital can be deployed more efficiently, settlement risk is reduced, and assets that were previously illiquid or operationally siloed can be put to work within familiar financing and collateral frameworks.

It feels as if this move to ‘bridge the gap’ is continuously gaining momentum. Would you agree, and what governance frameworks are available for firms to achieve this?

It was only a matter of time before what was seen as the beta testing phase of using crypto to build the plumbing for a new financial infrastructure converged with traditional finance thinking. Over the last few years, we have seen a clear shift from firms asking whether they should engage with digital assets to asking how they can do so within their existing governance, risk, and regulatory frameworks.

Several factors are driving this momentum: the growth of tokenised onchain financial assets, increasing regulatory clarity in key jurisdictions, the success of institutional digital asset products, and demand for greater operational efficiency. At the same time, financial institutions are becoming more comfortable with the technology as market infrastructure continues to mature.

From a governance perspective, the good news is that institutions do not need to reinvent the wheel. The core principles that have underpinned traditional financial markets for decades remain highly relevant. Asset segregation, fiduciary oversight, risk management, operational resilience, and independent custody are just as important in digital assets as they are in traditional markets. These are exactly the principles Komainu was built on, and they remain the foundation of everything we do.

Komainu released its Collateral-as-a-Service offering, Komainu CORE, in April. Can you explore the significance of this for the securities finance market?

Komainu CORE is significant because it addresses one of the key challenges preventing digital assets from being fully integrated into institutional capital markets: the ability to use those assets efficiently and safely as collateral.

In traditional securities finance, collateral is the foundation of activity. Whether in SBL, repo, derivatives, or prime brokerage, market participants rely on high-quality collateral to manage counterparty risk and unlock liquidity. Historically, digital assets have sat outside these workflows, creating operational silos and reducing capital efficiency. Komainu CORE changes that by enabling digital assets to remain securely held in segregated, regulated custodial wallets while simultaneously being deployed as collateral. Institutions retain beneficial ownership and the governance standards they require, without sacrificing the economic utility of their assets.

It also lays the groundwork for the future of tokenised finance. As bonds, money market funds, and private assets become tokenised, institutions will increasingly expect to borrow, lend, finance, and settle against those assets in real time. Collateral infrastructure becomes the critical bridge between tokenisation and practical market adoption.

“Blockchain-based infrastructure is moving from concept to reality. We are approaching a point where it has the potential to fundamentally transform how financial markets operate”

From your experience, how are you seeing digital assets change the collateral landscape?

Digital assets are fundamentally reshaping how institutions think about collateral, not just by introducing new asset types, but by changing the speed, mobility, and efficiency with which collateral can be managed.

We are moving from a world where collateral is relatively static to one where it can become far more dynamic and fluid. Near real-time atomic settlement, both single-chain and cross-chain, reduces counterparty credit exposure, lowers margin funding costs, and cuts failed settlements. A key development is the growing recognition that the quality of collateral is no longer defined solely by the underlying asset, but also by how quickly and efficiently it can be mobilised.

That said, challenges remain. Traditional securities finance is built on decades of legal precedent governing ownership rights, collateral arrangements, default management, and bankruptcy remoteness. While significant progress has been made, there is still work to do in ensuring digital assets can be pledged, transferred, and enforced across jurisdictions with the same legal certainty as traditional securities. The operational demands of 24/7 collateral mobility will also test many traditional players, requiring risk management, margin monitoring, and treasury functions to operate on a continuous basis.

Looking forward, what will be top of mind for Komainu over the coming 12 months?

Our focus over the next 12 months will be on helping institutions move from exploration to implementation. The conversation around digital assets has matured significantly, and we are increasingly seeing clients looking for practical ways to integrate digital assets and tokenised products into their existing operating models. In many cases, this involves education as much as technology. Business and operations teams need to be guided through the process, particularly around how digital assets can be incorporated into existing workflows.

Blockchain-based infrastructure is moving from concept to reality. We are approaching a point where it has the potential to fundamentally transform how financial markets operate, not unlike the transition from paper-based processes to electronic trading.

The next phase of market evolution will be driven by greater automation, transparency, and interoperability, and at Komainu, our focus is on building the trusted institutional infrastructure that enables that transition.