80% Japanese Institutional Investors Set to Enter Crypto Market, Plan Digital Asset Moves by 2029
Japan’s institutional crypto landscape is undergoing a quiet but significant transformation. Nearly 80% of surveyed institutional investors in Japan plan to allocate resources to crypto within three years, mostly targeting 2% to 5% portfolio weights. The findings come from a new survey by Nomura and its digital asset arm, Laser Digital, marking a clear pivot in how the country’s financial establishment views digital assets.
The survey, released on April 16, captured responses from 518 investment professionals across institutional investors, family offices, and public-interest organisations in Japan. The results paint a picture of a market that has moved past the “if” and is now firmly asking “how.”
The surge of Japanese institutional investors eyeing crypto portfolios is not merely speculative enthusiasm. Among those considering investing in crypto over the next three years, 79% said they have concrete plans to invest, with 60% expecting to allocate between 2% and 5% of their total portfolio to crypto assets.
Positive sentiment on crypto for the next year rose to 31%, a six-percentage-point increase from the 25% recorded in Nomura and Laser Digital’s previous survey in June 2024, while the share holding a negative outlook fell from 23% to 18%. That kind of directional shift, across a survey of 518 professionals, is not trivial.
Regulation has played a meaningful role. The shift is partly regulatory Finance Magnates, with Japan’s relatively clear framework giving institutions the confidence to treat digital assets as diversification tools rather than fringe bets. In Japan, regulatory discussions have advanced, including deliberations by the Financial System Council’s Working Group on Crypto-asset Systems toward the end of 2025.
Interest is also expanding well beyond basic price exposure. More than 60% of respondents expressed interest in staking, lending, derivatives and tokenised assets, reflecting growing demand for yield-generating strategies and more sophisticated portfolio construction. Stablecoins are another area of focus, with 63% of respondents identifying potential use cases including treasury management, cross-border payments and foreign exchange transactions.
That said, the road is not without bumps. The main concerns cited were the lack of established frameworks for fundamental analysis, counterparty risks such as default, fraud and asset loss, high volatility and regulatory uncertainty. Still, the tone has shifted. Rather than debating whether to invest, institutions are now focused on how to do it.
With Japanese institutional investors eyeing crypto portfolios at this scale, the broader Asia-Pacific digital asset market is watching closely. If allocations follow through on the timeline suggested, Japan could emerge as one of the more consequential institutional crypto markets globally before the decade is out.
