Asset manager Janus Henderson and tokenization platform Centrifuge have launched a blockchain-based fund tracking the Nasdaq-100 Index on Stellar, giving eligible investors outside the United States exposure to the benchmark.

Known as JQQQ, the fund is built on Centrifuge's tokenization infrastructure — technology that represents fund interests as digital tokens recorded on a blockchain — and seeks to track the Nasdaq-100, an index of 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange, under a licensing agreement with the exchange operator, according to a Tuesday announcement.

The launch extends Janus Henderson's onchain investment lineup beyond US Treasurys and structured credit into equity-index exposure, bringing one of the most closely watched equity benchmarks into the tokenized fund market. The asset manager said its institutional onchain strategies now exceed $1 billion.

JQQQ is structured as a segregated portfolio of a British Virgin Islands investment company — a structure that keeps the fund's assets separate from the company's other portfolios — and provides indirect exposure to the Nasdaq-100 rather than ownership of the underlying stocks. The fund targets eligible professional investors outside the US, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported a minimum investment of $100,000.

The debut follows Nasdaq's April decision to expand licensing of its Nasdaq-100 Index to additional asset managers, including BlackRock and State Street, while maintaining its longstanding partnership with Invesco, which operates the Invesco QQQ Trust exchange-traded fund — one of the world's largest ETFs — with a market capitalization of $499 billion.

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Stellar expands institutional tokenization footprint

The Janus Henderson launch adds to Stellar's growing tokenization business. The payments-focused Layer-1 blockchain currently ranks fourth among blockchains by distributed real-world asset value, with approximately $3.8 billion in tokenized assets, behind Ethereum, BNB Chain and Solana, according to RWA.xyz.

The network hosts tokenized assets from major issuers including Spiko, Franklin Templeton and Ondo. In July, tokenization platform Tradable announced plans to bring up to $1 billion in private credit assets to Stellar, with $500 million expected at launch.

Stellar is also part of a planned expansion by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), which announced in May that it would connect its tokenization service to the network. DTCC-tokenized assets are expected to become available in the first half of 2027, potentially including US Treasurys, major index ETFs and Russell 1000 stocks.

Despite the expansion of Stellar's tokenized asset market, its native token, XLM, has fallen about 16% year to date, trading near $0.17 on Tuesday, according to CoinGecko data.

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