Nearly 80% of Japanese Institutional Investors Plan Crypto Allocations by 2029

A December 2025-January 2026 survey by Nomura and Laser Digital of 518 Japanese investment professionals reveals that approximately 80% plan to allocate up to 5% of their portfolios to digital assets by 2029, with most targeting 2-5% allocations. Positive sentiment toward crypto among Japanese institutional investors rose to 31% from 25% in 2024, while negative views declined to 18%. Investors cite low correlation with traditional assets as a key driver and show strong interest in staking, lending, derivatives, and stablecoins for treasury management and cross-border payments. However, challenges remain including lack of valuation frameworks, counterparty risks, regulatory uncertainty, and high volatility. Japan's early regulation of crypto exchanges after the 2014 Mt. Gox collapse and recent integration of digital assets into existing financial laws have created a framework for institutional adoption by major players like SBI Holdings, bitFlyer, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

Institutional crypto adoption plans in Japan

• ▪Roughly 80% of Japan's investment professionals plan to allocate up to 5% of their portfolios to digital assets by 2029.
• ▪A survey by Nomura and Laser Digital found that almost 80% of Japan's institutional investors plan to add crypto to their portfolios in the next three years.
• ▪Negative sentiment toward crypto among Japanese institutional investors declined to 18% in the Nomura survey.
• ▪More than half of Japanese institutional investors surveyed target allocations between 2% and 5% of their portfolios for crypto.
• ▪25% of Japanese institutional investors had a positive outlook on crypto in 2024.
• ▪The Nomura and Laser Digital survey was conducted in December 2025 and January 2026.
• ▪31% of Japanese institutional investor survey respondents described their outlook on crypto as positive in the Nomura survey.
• ▪The Nomura and Laser Digital survey gathered responses from 518 investment professionals including institutional investors, family offices and public-interest organizations.

Japan's regulatory framework and market infrastructure

• ▪Japan has focused recent regulatory efforts on integrating digital assets into existing financial laws, including updates tied to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.
• ▪Japan was an early mover in regulating crypto exchanges following the Mt. Gox collapse in 2014.
• ▪Nomura founded Laser Digital in 2022 to expand into trading, asset management and venture investing.
• ▪Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has explored tokenized deposits and stablecoins.

Evolving investment strategies beyond price speculation

• ▪63% of Japanese institutional investor survey respondents identified potential use cases for stablecoins including treasury management, cross-border payments and foreign exchange transactions.
• ▪More than 60% of Japanese institutional investor survey respondents expressed interest in derivatives and tokenized assets.
• ▪More than 60% of Japanese institutional investor survey respondents expressed interest in income-generating strategies such as staking and lending.
• ▪Many Japanese institutional investors cited low correlation with traditional asset classes as a key reason for adding crypto exposure.

Perspective of Japanese institutional investors

• ▪Japanese institutional investors prefer crypto allocations in the 2% to 5% range to manage portfolio risk.

Perspective of Japanese financial regulators

• ▪Japanese financial regulators have updated the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act to accommodate digital asset activities.
• ▪Japanese financial regulators responded to the Mt. Gox collapse in 2014 by becoming early movers in crypto exchange regulation.

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