Nomura-backed digital assets arm Laser Digital and ZIG Finance have launched the zEMS Vault, an onchain credit vehicle targeting $100 million for exposure to Saudi small and medium-sized enterprise loans. The product is deployed on BNB Chain and uses stablecoins for subscriptions and redemptions, with access restricted to eligible institutional investors through know-your-customer checks.
The vault’s structure divides responsibilities across several parties. Beehive, a lending platform regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority, originates the SME loans. Laser Digital provides the risk framework and acts as tokenization adviser. KAIO manages onchain tokenization and lifecycle administration on BNB Chain, while Zamanat handles structuring and Sharia advisory. The partners emphasized that the product is not an open permissionless DeFi pool; it packages a diversified pool of Saudi SME credit into a tokenized investment vehicle with conventional underwriting, collateral monitoring and repayment risk.
The launch is the first vault under a strategic relationship formed on August 5, 2026, when Laser Digital invested around $8 million into ZIGChain. The broader goal is to drive at least $100 million in total value locked across vaults focused on SME financing and private credit in Gulf Cooperation Council countries and other emerging markets. ZIG Markets, part of the group, says it has originated more than $50 million in loans with no defaults to date.
The initiative also highlights Laser Digital’s wider regulated digital asset push under Nomura, which included conditional national trust bank approval in the United States by May 2026. The zEMS Vault therefore combines blockchain-native settlement with traditional credit controls, reflecting the expanding push to bring private credit onchain.
The $100 million figure remains a fundraising target, not committed capital. While tokenization changes how the exposure is packaged and transferred, it does not remove the underlying risk that SMEs may fail to repay loans. Liquidity is another consideration: stablecoin redemptions may sound fast, but the underlying loans are not instantly liquid. The next test will be whether institutional investors allocate at the scale envisioned, and Laser Digital and ZIG Finance have indicated that similar vault structures could extend to other emerging markets and credit strategies if demand materializes.
