ChainCatcher message: On October 2, SMBC Nikko Securities announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the development of a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform for Japanese investors, “DeFi Gateway.” The participants include blockchain development company Nethermind, Uniswap Labs, the general incorporated association Nyx Foundation, and Coinbase Technologies, which operates the Ethereum Layer 2 network Base. The project will develop a liquidity-supply protocol and proprietary liquidity pools, and will comply with requirements under Japanese laws and regulations. The parties plan to complete development in mid-2027.

The cooperation mainly centers on three areas of development: first, building an “agentic vault” that uses verifiable and reproducible AI, along with an intuitive user interface; second, leveraging Uniswap v4’s Hooks feature to construct a publicly available compliance liquidity pool framework with built-in anti–money laundering and counter–terrorist financing (AML/CFT) and investor-protection mechanisms; third, developing asset-management strategies covering digital assets such as stablecoins and real-world assets (RWAs).

The project is jointly led by SMBC Nikko Securities and Nethermind. SMBC Nikko Securities leads communication with regulatory authorities and provides compliance, risk modeling, and portfolio management experience; Nethermind is responsible for technical design and development, including AI strategy and integration, smart contract security, as well as automated market making and Uniswap v4 Hooks strategy.