Janus Henderson Launches Blockchain-Native Nasdaq-100 Fund on Stellar

Janus Henderson and Centrifuge launched JQQQ on Tuesday, offering exposure to the Nasdaq-100 Index through a fund issued and operated on public blockchain infrastructure. The companies describe the product, available exclusively on Stellar at launch, as the first blockchain-native fund providing that exposure through an issuer-sponsored investment strategy.

The announcement extends Janus Henderson’s tokenized investment platform, which the asset manager says now encompasses more than $1 billion in institutional strategies. Its lineup spans U.S. Treasuries, structured credit and public equities, placing JQQQ within a broader effort rather than a standalone blockchain experiment.

Centrifuge supplies the infrastructure for issuing and operating the fund, while the investment strategy seeks to track the Nasdaq-100 under a licensing agreement. The companies distinguish the structure from products that place digital representations of existing securities onto blockchain networks: JQQQ was designed for blockchain issuance from the outset.

The fund’s legal structure also defines who manages the investment. JQQQ is a segregated portfolio of Anemoy Capital SPC Limited, a British Virgin Islands company, with Anemoy Asset Management Limited serving as investment manager and Janus Henderson Investors US LLC as sub-investment manager.

Access remains restricted despite the use of a public network. According to the announcement’s legal disclosures, the fund is unavailable to U.S. persons and may be offered only to eligible investors in jurisdictions where its distribution is lawful. Blockchain availability therefore does not mean unrestricted investor access.

The partners frame native issuance as a way to connect established investment strategies with digital financial applications. Potential uses include programmable portfolios and the ability to use fund shares as collateral, broadening the role of tokenized funds beyond simply providing another channel for holding investments.

Those applications are possibilities rather than guaranteed features. The disclosures state that collateral, lending and similar functions would depend on independent third parties and fall outside Janus Henderson’s management of the fund. Availability would also depend on investor eligibility, applicable law and the terms of the relevant platform.

Investors face risks beyond movements in the underlying investment exposure. The announcement identifies possible failures or compromises involving blockchain networks, smart contracts, wallets and third-party platforms, potentially disrupting transfers or redemptions. It also cautions that tokenization faces evolving legal, tax and regulatory treatment.

Several commercial details were absent from the launch announcement, according to Unchained’s reporting. Although the release described fees as competitive, it did not specify a fee rate, minimum investment or date for subscriptions to begin. Those omissions limit what prospective investors can establish from the announcement alone.

The next stage will test whether the proposed connections to digital financial applications become available in practice. For now, the launch establishes a blockchain-native route to Nasdaq-100 exposure, while the partners’ disclosures make clear that access and additional functionality remain conditional.