Janus Henderson takes ENA position, eyes regulated investment products tied to Ethena

Janus Henderson, a $480 billion asset manager, has taken a position in Ethena’s governance token ENA (ENA) through its ANTIK blockchain venture and intends to use staked USDe for cash management under a strategic partnership aimed at expanding institutional access to tokenized financial infrastructure.

The firm also committed to working with Ethena on regulated investment vehicles for USDe and ENA, potentially including exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products, expected to launch in the second half of 2026, according to a statement shared with The Block on Tuesday.

“We are excited to partner with one of the world‘s leading asset managers, whose distribution reach and deep institutional relationships will be instrumental in bringing Ethena’s products to institutional investors in a way that is accessible, familiar, and built for scale,” Ethena founder Guy Young said in the statement.

As part of the partnership, Ethena is integrating Janus Henderson’s JAAA strategy into USDe’s reserve portfolio. The strategy, managed by Janus Henderson, invests in AAA-rated collateralized loan obligations and has been positioned by the firm as part of its broader push into tokenized real-world assets through partnerships with blockchain infrastructure providers, including Centrifuge.

Janus Henderson began moving into tokenization as early as September 2024, following BlackRock and Fidelity International into onchain capital markets when it took over management of the $11 million Anemoy Liquid Treasury Fund, a tokenized fund investing in short-term U.S. Treasury bills.

The asset manager is also listed as a partner alongside BlackRock in Grove’s Basin infrastructure, which launched last month with up to $1 billion in daily stablecoin liquidity capacity. The framework is designed to support instant liquidity for tokenized real-world assets through onchain credit facilities.

ENA is currently trading near $0.08, down roughly 6.8% over the past 24 hours, according to The Block’s ENA price page.