Key Takeaways
- • Janus Henderson's flagship AAA CLO strategy (JAAA) is now fully tokenized and live on Centrifuge, backed by a $1 billion seed allocation from Grove, an institutional credit platform incubated within the Sky ecosystem.
- • The tokenized fund structure reduces intermediary costs and operational inefficiencies by building the credit strategy natively on blockchain rather than wrapping an existing offchain ETF, expanding access to global capital allocators.
- • JAAA has grown from its $1 billion seed (mid-2025) to approximately $1.3 billion in total value locked, with $200 million deployed in DeFi vault integrations and an additional $100 million integration via Aave Horizon announced in February 2026.
- • Kraken Custody has integrated JAAA into its institutional custody offering, enabling professional investors to access the tokenized AAA CLO product alongside other real-world assets (RWAs).
- • The initiative represents a material convergence of traditional finance and decentralized finance, with Grove serving as the non-custodial bridge infrastructure and Centrifuge handling the onchain infrastructure for institutional-grade credit strategies.
Summary
Janus Henderson, a major global asset manager, has partnered with Centrifuge to launch JAAA (Anemoy AAA CLO Fund), a fully tokenized version of the firm's flagship AAA-rated collateralized loan obligation strategy. The product went live on Centrifuge with a $1 billion seed commitment from Grove, an institutional credit platform incubated by the Sky ecosystem. Rather than wrapping an existing offchain fund into blockchain format, the structure was built natively as an onchain-first product, designed specifically for decentralized capital markets while maintaining institutional-grade credit exposure.
Grove, which counts team members with backgrounds at Deloitte, BlockTower Capital, Hildene Capital Management, and Citibank, operates as a non-custodial protocol bridging traditional finance and DeFi. The platform was purpose-built to facilitate secure, compliant, and capital-efficient deployment of real-world assets onchain. By seeding JAAA with $1 billion, Grove provided substantial initial liquidity while demonstrating institutional confidence in the tokenized credit strategy model. Anil Sood, Chief Strategy and Growth Officer of Centrifuge, noted that while tokenized treasuries have established a foundation, market demand is shifting toward more diversified, high-quality onchain assets.
The fund has demonstrated material traction since inception. JAAA grew from its $1 billion seed (established mid-2025) to approximately $1.3 billion in total value locked. The product has been integrated into multiple DeFi protocols, including a $200 million deployment in DeFi vaults and a $100 million integration via Aave Horizon announced in February 2026. Kraken Institutional partnered with Centrifuge to offer JAAA custody, bringing the tokenized CLO fund into established institutional custody infrastructure.
The token structure itself (deJAAA) is designed for interoperability within DeFi while remaining accessible exclusively to non-U.S. professional investors. JAAA is positioned not as a general-purpose cryptoasset but as targeted, yield-bearing exposure to Janus Henderson's credit strategy. The initiative reflects a broader institutional pivot toward using blockchain infrastructure for operational efficiency and capital access rather than as a speculative mechanism, while simultaneously diversifying collateral sources for yield-generating DeFi products like Ethena's USDe stablecoin.
Grove, which counts team members with backgrounds at Deloitte, BlockTower Capital, Hildene Capital Management, and Citibank, operates as a non-custodial protocol bridging traditional finance and DeFi. The platform was purpose-built to facilitate secure, compliant, and capital-efficient deployment of real-world assets onchain. By seeding JAAA with $1 billion, Grove provided substantial initial liquidity while demonstrating institutional confidence in the tokenized credit strategy model. Anil Sood, Chief Strategy and Growth Officer of Centrifuge, noted that while tokenized treasuries have established a foundation, market demand is shifting toward more diversified, high-quality onchain assets.
The fund has demonstrated material traction since inception. JAAA grew from its $1 billion seed (established mid-2025) to approximately $1.3 billion in total value locked. The product has been integrated into multiple DeFi protocols, including a $200 million deployment in DeFi vaults and a $100 million integration via Aave Horizon announced in February 2026. Kraken Institutional partnered with Centrifuge to offer JAAA custody, bringing the tokenized CLO fund into established institutional custody infrastructure.
The token structure itself (deJAAA) is designed for interoperability within DeFi while remaining accessible exclusively to non-U.S. professional investors. JAAA is positioned not as a general-purpose cryptoasset but as targeted, yield-bearing exposure to Janus Henderson's credit strategy. The initiative reflects a broader institutional pivot toward using blockchain infrastructure for operational efficiency and capital access rather than as a speculative mechanism, while simultaneously diversifying collateral sources for yield-generating DeFi products like Ethena's USDe stablecoin.
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