Janus Henderson Launches Tokenized CLO Strategy via Grove Protocol
Forward Guidance
By [Your Name], Forward Guidance
Prior to covering cryptocurrency, the author spent time reporting on traditional asset management, including firms like Janus Henderson (JHX). This background highlights the ongoing convergence between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi).
In a significant development announced today, investment manager Janus Henderson unveiled a $1 billion allocation of its Sky ecosystem collateral to the newly tokenized Janus Henderson Anemoy AAA CLO Strategy (JAAA) via the Grove DeFi protocol.
This launch marks Janus Henderson’s second tokenized fund following the September 2023 introduction of a tokenized fund offering access to short-term US Treasury bills, also facilitated by partners Anemoy and Centrifuge.
Janus Henderson’s Innovation Head, Nick Cherney, previously stated that integrating institutional collateral pools into DeFi and stablecoin ecosystems is a critical part of this TradFi-DeFi bridge, a role furthering reiterated by this move. The newly tokenized CLO ETF, representing a fund with over $20 billion AUM launched in 2020, seeks income from various-maturity collateralized loan obligations.
Grove Labs Co-Founder Sam Paderewski emphasized CLOs’ suitability for DeFi due to their yield profile and structure. In a statement, Cherney noted Janus Henderson’s preparation for blockchain’s potential transformation of traditional finance.
While stablecoins currently dominate the tokenized asset space with a market cap exceeding $240 billion, growth in tokenized private credit and Treasury products remains significant, though substantially smaller – valued around $14 billion and $7 billion, respectively.
This initiative represents another step in the evolving TradFi-DeFi intersection, signaling increased mainstream financial institution engagement with on-chain finance.
