Laser Digital, a digital finance firm subsidiary of the Japanese banking giant, Nomura, is deepening its web3 operations with the launch of an institutional fund offering exposure to Polygon.

Announced on March 27, Laser Digital is teaming up with TruFin, a lending and payments company to launch the Laser Digital Polygon Adoption Fund, an institutional investment product providing exposure to Polygon’s MATIC token and staking yields.

Laser Digital said the fund is designed to cater to large legacy financial entities, including sovereign wealth funds, private asset managers, and institutional funds.

“Institutional investors are beginning to understand the benefits and necessity of decentralized security, and this Fund shows that institutions are compelled by the broader ecosystem,” Laser Digital said in an announcement. “We are making Polygon-Matic digital asset investment accessible, in the most secure, and efficient way for institutional investors.”

Staking services are provided in the form of TruFin’s TruStake liquid staking solution, which issues the TruMATIC token to Polygon stakers.

TruFin said the solution has consistently outperformed Lido, the largest liquid staking provider, to deliver a 5% annual yield over the past nine months. The firm has also teamed up with the Balancer decentralized exchange to ensure additional utilities and yield generation opportunities are available to TruMATIC holders.

Laser Digital expands web3 presence

The news follows Laser Digital launching a pilot exploring the issuance of wrapped USDC on a permissioned network in partnership with Keyring Network, a firm providing compliant web3 services to institutions, last week.

Keyring co-founder, Mélodie Lamarque, told The Defiant that wrapped USDC was used to execute a test trade on a permissioned network, and was also used to carry out asset transfers on the Ethereum mainnet.

The Laser Digital Polygon Adoption Fund will provide validation services to Polygon AggLayer, a cross-chain interoperability protocol facilitating atomic swaps across the Ethereum mainnet and support Layer 2 networks. AggLayer is currently supported by two networks in the Polygon zkEVM and Astar zkEVM rollups.

“By integrating the Polygon AggLayer, the Fund leverages the aggregation of Zero-Knowledge proofs from all connected chains, aiming to ensure high liquidity, near-instant cross-chain transactions, and uniform cryptographic security,” Laser Digital said.

Laser Digital will first roll out the fund to U.K.-based investors before expanding the offering into additional jurisdictions.