SMBC Nikko Securities and blockchain developer Nethermind signed a memorandum of understanding with Uniswap Labs, Base and the Nyx Foundation on October 2, 2026, setting out a five-party plan to build a Japan-focused decentralized finance gateway.
The partners aim to complete the project by mid-2027. No live product has been launched, and no public approval has been given by Japan’s Financial Services Agency. The DeFi Gateway would use Uniswap v4 hooks to build compliant liquidity pools with anti-money laundering, counterterrorism financing and investor protection controls.
The MoU converts earlier two-party research by SMBC Nikko and Nethermind into a defined development structure. Nethermind leads technical design and delivery across engineering, AI integration and smart-contract security; Uniswap Labs supplies protocol integration and liquidity-deployment expertise; Base supports deployment in its Ethereum layer-2 ecosystem; and the Nyx Foundation advises on market-making strategies and hook structures. SMBC Nikko leads regulatory discussions and contributes compliance, risk modeling and portfolio management expertise.
The collaboration also covers agentic vaults built on verifiable and reproducible AI, an open framework for compliant pools, and asset management strategies covering stablecoins and real-world assets. No supported tokens, customer eligibility requirements, fees or minimum investment amounts were disclosed.
The timing overlaps with regulatory changes in Japan. The FSA created a dedicated crypto and stablecoin division in August 2026, while Japan’s megabanks are targeting stablecoin transactions by March 2027. Base has also seen growth in tokenized securities activity, with tokenized-stock DEX volume reaching $100 million in a single day in September. However, SMBC Nikko has not said those assets will be available through the Japanese gateway.
