Janus Henderson launches Nasdaq-100 fund on Stellar

Janus Henderson and Centrifuge launched JQQQ, a fund built to track the Nasdaq-100 on the Stellar blockchain, bringing the benchmark to an issuer-sponsored onchain product. The Janus Henderson announcement says the strategy is licensed by Nasdaq and is the first blockchain-native fund to offer this kind of exposure through an issuer-sponsored strategy.

How is JQQQ structured?

JQQQ is designed to be issued and operated on a public blockchain, rather than represent a security already held in a traditional system. Janus Henderson manages it, while Centrifuge provides the infrastructure for issuing and operating the fund onchain. Nasdaq licenses use of its index.

The fund is a segregated portfolio of Anemoy Capital SPC Limited, a British Virgin Islands company. Anemoy Asset Management is its investment manager, and Janus Henderson Investors US is the sub-investment manager, according to the fund’s legal notes.

JQQQ gives investors indirect economic exposure to a product that tracks the Nasdaq-100. It does not give them ownership rights in the index or its constituent companies. The fund is available only to eligible investors where it can lawfully be offered, and not to U.S. persons.

Who can buy it, and what has not been disclosed?

The fund is launching exclusively on Stellar. Janus Henderson and Centrifuge did not state a fee rate or minimum investment in their announcement. Unchained’s report also found no subscription start date in the announcement.

Janus Henderson said its onchain platform now includes more than $1 billion in institutional strategies spanning U.S. Treasuries, structured credit and public equities. The firm manages about half a trillion dollars in assets overall, according to its release.

Can JQQQ shares be used in other crypto apps?

The firms say onchain issuance could make it easier to connect fund shares to digital finance applications, including programmable portfolios. They also point to possible use as collateral for lending. These uses are not offered or managed by Janus Henderson: its legal notes say they would depend on independent third parties and may not be available to every investor.

The launch adds an index-tracking product to tokenized funds, which represent investment interests as digital tokens. Its blockchain format may open new ways to distribute and use fund shares, but investors still face risks from the fund itself and from the networks, smart contracts and wallets used to hold or transfer tokens.

Sources

• Janus Henderson announcement — janushenderson.com
• Unchained’s report — unchainedcrypto.com