Janus Henderson follows TradFi rivals into tokenized fund space

Janus Henderson is the latest traditional money manager interested in getting involved in the tokenized fund space.

Nearly two-thirds of the investment firm’s roughly $360 billion of client assets under manager (as of June 30) reside in Janus Henderson equity strategies. The company also has fixed income, multi-asset and alternatives products. 

Now, Janus Henderson is set to run Anemoy Limited’s Liquid Treasury Fund — a tokenized fund on Centrifuge’s public blockchain that gives exposure to short-term US Treasury bills. It will manage the fund’s portfolio via subsidiary Tabula.

Tabula CEO Michael John Lytle noted in a Monday statement “a natural overlap between the rapid expansion of ETF solutions and the need to underpin digital investments with stable, liquid stores of value, like US Treasury bills.”

Read more: Digital assets involvement becoming “inevitable” for more institutions

Janus Henderson’s corporate strategy operates on many time horizons, the firm’s innovation head Nick Cherney told Blockworks. Its dedicated innovation effort specifically targets long-term initiatives the firm is betting will shape the financial industry’s future.

“Our decision to partner on a tokenized Treasury fund is the direct result of our focus on preparing for a future in which blockchain technology potentially transforms the way in which we deliver investment insights to our clients,” he said.

Cherney added this represents the firm’s first step into the broader nascent movement to bring “robust, transparent, institutional asset management of real-world assets” onto the blockchain.

The company joins some bigger fish in this space — namely BlackRock and Franklin Templeton — which have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in assets to their tokenized money market funds. 

Read more: BlackRock doubles down on tokenization via investment in Securitize

State Street said last month it plans to add tokenization and digital custody services via a partnership with crypto infrastructure provider Taurus, and others continue to test blockchain tech use cases.

An August OKX report recently spotlighted a 2023 survey showing that about a third of hedge funds labeled tokenization as the most significant future market opportunity. 

“What’s clear is that institutions see digital assets as inevitable, as…securities, bonds and central bank digital currencies are tokenized on the blockchain,” OKX Chief Commercial Officer Lennix Lai previously told Blockworks. 

Archax, a UK-based digital securities exchange, broker and custodian, said Tuesday it would add Anemoy’s Liquid Treasury Fund to its primary platform.

“This initial fund could have broad applicability for a wide range of crypto native protocols, from stablecoin collateral to DAO treasury management,” Cherney said. “We will continue to explore how we can deepen this effort in jurisdictions globally where we feel there is robust infrastructure to do so.”

A modified version of this article first appeared in yesterday’s On the Margin newsletter. Subscribe here so you don’t miss tomorrow’s edition.

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