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Janus Henderson and Centrifuge launch blockchain native fund

Saturday, October 31, 2026
Opalesque Industry Update - Janus Henderson, a leading global asset manager, and Centrifuge, a financial technology company specializing in tokenizing real-world assets, today announced the launch of JQQQ, the first blockchain native fund offering exposure to the Nasdaq-100 Index® through an issuer-sponsored investment strategy. The fund is built for issuance and operation on public blockchain infrastructure, combining the investment standards of a leading global asset manager with new distribution channels and onchain composability while offering competitive fees.

Managed by Janus Henderson, a global asset manager with approximately half a trillion in assets under management, the fund is powered by Centrifuge's full-stack infrastructure for onchain funds. The fund seeks to track the Nasdaq-100 Index®, under license from Nasdaq.

The launch represents an important evolution in tokenization. Rather than simply reflecting existing securities on blockchain rails, major financial institutions are building investment products natively onchain. This approach preserves established investment management standards while enabling new capabilities, including programmable portfolios, integration with digital financial applications, and the potential to use fund shares as collateral across onchain markets.

"We're pleased to partner with Nasdaq Global Indexes and Centrifuge to launch JQQQ, combining Janus Henderson's investment expertise with innovative digital infrastructure to meet the evolving needs of our clients," said Nick Cherney, Head of Innovation at Janus Henderson. "As a top five global provider of tokenized funds, Janus Henderson is committed to becoming the world's most technologically sophisticated asset manager. This launch expands Janus Henderson's onchain platform, which now includes more than $1 billion in institutional strategies across U.S. Treasuries, structured credit, and public equities, to encompass one of the world's most recognized equity benchmarks."

"As investors explore new ways to access markets through digital infrastructure, demand continues to grow for exposure to established, transparent benchmarks," said Sean Wasserman, Head of Index Product Management at Nasdaq. "The Nasdaq-100 Index® has long served as a foundation for a broad range of investment products, and we're excited to support Janus Henderson in the continued evolution of index-based investing as it extends across a growing range of investment structures."

Native onchain issuance changes what an investment fund can become. Beyond providing digital access to an established investment strategy, an onchain fund can connect directly to new distribution channels and financial applications, creating the potential for programmable vaults, onchain portfolios, collateral, lending, and structured products.

"Tokenization becomes much more powerful when the assets investors want to own can also become building blocks for an onchain financial system," said Anil Sood, Chief Strategy and Growth Officer at Centrifuge. "With Janus Henderson and Nasdaq Global Indexes, we are bringing the Nasdaq-100 Index® onchain as a licensed, issuer-sponsored institutional investment product."

The fund is launching exclusively on the Stellar network, where real-world assets surpassed $4 billion in 2026. The network has developed an increasingly diverse institutional asset market spanning tokenized U.S. Treasuries, sovereign debt, money-market funds, credit, and other financial instruments.

"Bringing the Nasdaq-100® onchain with Janus Henderson and Centrifuge shows how far tokenization has come, from cash-equivalent assets to the benchmarks that define global equity markets," said Denelle Dixon, CEO & Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation. "Stellar was purpose-built for regulated finance, and we expect many more products like this to follow."

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