Japanese banking giant Nomura plans to scale back its crypto exposure, citing a challenging market environment and a drop in overseas profits during the third quarter.
Nomura Chief Financial Officer Hiroyuki Moriuchi told Bloomberg Japan on Friday that the firm will focus on reducing risk at its European digital asset subsidiary, Laser Digital Holdings, which posted losses for the quarter ending Dec. 31.
“While our subsidiary was impacted by crypto market turbulence, we will manage stability through careful position management in the coming months,” Moriuchi said, adding that Nomura’s long-term commitment to crypto remains unchanged. The bank is still eyeing expansion for its Switzerland-based subsidiary in the medium to long term.
Nomura’s Q3 coincided with a major crypto market downturn, during which Bitcoin fell from a peak of $126,000 on Oct. 6 to around $88,000 by Dec. 31, according to CoinGecko data.
In its third-quarter earnings report, Nomura said its crypto and other European ventures recorded a combined loss of 10.6 billion yen ($68.5 million), while its overseas operations still generated a profit of 16.3 billion yen ($105.3 million)—a 70% decline compared with the same period last year.
The bank posted a net income of 91.6 billion yen ($590 million), down 9.7% from Q3 2024. Part of the decline reflected a $1.8 billion acquisition of Macquarie Group’s U.S. and European public asset management business, as well as expenses related to a stock buyback program.
Nomura shares fell about 6.8% on Monday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange following the bank’s Q3 earnings report.
Hideyasu Ban, a senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, told The Japan Times on Sunday that “there is a vague sense of unease about the overall market direction, and that seems to have combined with the surprise on the crypto front to set off selling.”
