Janus Henderson Launches First Native Onchain AAA CLO Strategy

Janus Henderson Investors has launched the first fully native onchain AAA collateralized loan obligation (CLO) strategy in partnership with tokenization platform Centrifuge, backed by a $1 billion allocation from the Grove protocol operating within the Sky Ecosystem.

Janus Henderson’s JAAA CLO Strategy Debuts Natively Onchain

According to the announcement shared with Bitcoin.com News, Janus Henderson Anemoy AAA CLO Strategy (JAAA) resides natively on the blockchain without using wrapped tokens or intermediaries. Managed by the same team overseeing Janus Henderson’s $21 billion AAA CLO ETF, JAAA aims to provide onchain investors institutional-grade credit exposure targeting capital preservation and yield.

The Grove protocol, serving as decentralized credit infrastructure, facilitated the allocation from the Sky Ecosystem, formerly known as MakerDAO. The team explained that Grove is designed to function as a capital highway between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), aiming to increase efficiency and reduce friction for accessing diversified credit investments.

This launch follows the earlier introduction of the tokenized Janus Henderson Anemoy Treasury Fund (JTRSY) via Centrifuge, which became one of the top five tokenized Treasury funds by assets under management. Grove Labs, a subsidiary of Steakhouse Financial and co-founded by Mark Phillips, Kevin Chan, and Sam Paderewski, incubated Grove as a “Star” within the Sky Ecosystem’s governance framework.

Sam Paderewski, Grove Labs co-founder, stated the $1 billion allocation is an initial step towards building an onchain capital highway enabling institutional managers and DeFi protocols to operate securely and transparently. Nick Cherney, Head of Innovation at Janus Henderson, highlighted the move as aligning with their long-term view of blockchain transforming finance.

Rune Christensen, Sky co-founder, noted Grove’s role within the ecosystem in helping diversify tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), which enhance stablecoin stability. The Sky Ecosystem, centered around the USDS stablecoin, enables autonomous agents and independent protocol units (“Stars”) like Grove through its governance frameworks.