Former Nomura Vice President of Digital Assets joins Komainu as Head of Strategy

Komainu (“the Company”), a regulated digital asset custody services provider built by institutions for institutions, today announced it has appointed Sebastian Widmann as Head of Strategy. In this role, Mr. Widmann will be tasked with guiding Komainu through its next stage of growth and the Company’s end goal of becoming a one stop shop for institutions seeking exposure to digital assets.

Mr. Widmann joins Komainu from Nomura, where he served as Vice President of the Wholesale Digital Office and was the first hire of its digital assets division. In 2015, he contributed to a research paper that discussed the factors hindering the expansion of distributed ledger technology into the traditional finance landscape. The insight gained from his research enabled Mr. Widmann to stay at the forefront of the digital asset industry and advance Nomura’s involvement in the space.

Commenting on the news, Henson Orser, President and Acting CEO of Komainu, stated, “After expanding our team with a new C-level hire and the opening of the UK office, Sebastian is the latest addition to our rapidly growing organization. We are looking forward to Sebastian leveraging his experience from working in Nomura’s Wholesale Digital Office to assist in the expansion of our existing offerings and the development of new ones. I am excited for Sebastian to join and further establish Komainu as the key partner for institutions looking to move into the digital asset industry.”

Mr. Widmann joins Komainu at a key point in its evolution, with the Company reaching a milestone of $5bn in Assets Under Custody (AUC) earlier this year. He will leverage his expertise in the digital asset ecosystem and extensive experience operating within the space to support Komainu’s continued development. Mr. Widmann will be called upon frequently to assist in the Company’s expansion into the digital asset prime brokerage space and further provide institutions with the security and transparency needed for them to comfortably invest in digital assets.

“I look forward to closely working with our stellar team and clients with the support of our strategic partners and investors,” said Mr. Widmann. “I have closely followed the digital asset space throughout the last three market cycles, and whilst we are now seeing increased institutional and regulatory participation in the industry, I firmly believe that we are only at the beginning of the most transformative change the financial services industry has ever witnessed.”