Nomura Holdings is building a team to help firms tap opportunities in the metaverse as Japan’s biggest brokerage pushes deeper into digital services and private markets to boost profit.
The Tokyo-based firm is considering using its investment banking knowledge to help companies in the virtual space raise money and advise on how to navigate regulations as they emerge, according to Senior Managing Director Kaoru Numata, who oversees digital projects and retail marketing. Details of Nomura’s plans for the virtual reality market are still being worked out, he said.
Nomura may be able to make money through creating securities out of digital assets, such as shoes, and other nonfungible tokens, according to Numata. "You will need financial services where economic activity in the real world merges itself with anything of value created in the metaverse,” he said, acknowledging that it’s difficult to identify a "sure way” to generate revenue from the metaverse, a proposed immersive version of the internet accessed via devices such as virtual-reality headsets.