Laser Digital, the digital assets arm of the Japanese financial services firm Nomura Group, has made a strategic investment in ZIGChain, a UAE-based Layer1 blockchain that also works with cryptocurrency-friendly fund servicing giant Apex Group. The exact size of Laser’s investment was not revealed, but it’s understood to be in the single-digit millions. The strategic partnership, which aims to streamline private credit markets across the Gulf States, including Sharia-compliant offerings, is equally important, said ZIGChain co-founder Abdul Rafay Gadit. “Laser is creating with us one of the largest on-chain products the Gulf countries have ever seen,” Rafay Gadit said in an interview. “It helps that we are based in Dubai and Laser is also in Dubai, and our offices are literally one kilometer apart.”