On October 27, Janus Henderson and the blockchain-infrastructure firm Centrifuge announced JQQQ, a fund that seeks to track the Nasdaq-100 index and is built to live on a blockchain from the start. It launches “exclusively” on Stellar, according to the announcement, under a licensing agreement with Nasdaq. The same day, SBI Holdings and Startale said they had signed a preliminary agreement with BlackRock to study linking tokenized money-market funds to a yen stablecoin. Both items show where tokenization is heading, and both come with limits that the headlines skip.
How JQQQ is built
The fund is a segregated portfolio, the Janus Henderson NASDAQ-100 Index Fund Segregated Portfolio, inside Anemoy Capital SPC Limited, a British Virgin Islands company. Anemoy Asset Management is the investment manager, Janus Henderson Investors US is the sub-investment manager, and Centrifuge supplies the onchain fund infrastructure. Ledger Insights reports that it is issued natively onchain rather than being a tokenized copy of an existing fund, and that the same Anemoy structure already houses Janus Henderson’s tokenized Treasury fund and a AAA-rated CLO fund.
The exposure is indirect. According to the announcement, investors get economic exposure to the index but no beneficial ownership of it and no shareholder rights in the underlying companies. That is a different thing from owning an exchange-traded fund on a brokerage account, and the document does not describe JQQQ as an ETF.
Who can buy it, and when
JQQQ is for eligible investors in places where it may legally be offered, and it is not available to U.S. persons. Cointelegraph, citing the Wall Street Journal, says the target is eligible professional investors outside the U.S. with a $100,000 minimum; Ledger Insights gives the minimum as 100,000 USDC. We did not retrieve the Journal article, so treat the minimum as a secondary report. The release calls fees “competitive” and gives no figures.
Despite the word “launch” in many headlines, the primary text says the fund is launching, and it does not say whether subscriptions are open. Ledger Insights said Centrifuge’s portal read “seeding soon” with assets starting from zero, and The Defiant reported that subscriptions were not yet open. We could not confirm a go-live date or an opening price.
How it compares
| Fund | Value (rwa.xyz, Oct. 29) | Structure | Who can buy | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BUIDL (BlackRock, Securitize) | $2.19 billion | BVI vehicle, Reg D | U.S. qualified purchasers; 5 million USDC minimum | 0.20–0.50% |
| BENJI (Franklin Templeton) | $681.6 million | U.S.-registered 1940 Act fund | U.S. investors; $20 minimum | 0.20% |
| JTRSY (Janus Henderson, Anemoy) | $249.3 million | BVI professional fund | Non-U.S. professionals; 500,000 USDC minimum | 0.25% |
| JQQQ (Janus Henderson, Centrifuge) | Not yet reported | BVI segregated portfolio | Eligible non-U.S. investors; $100,000 minimum per secondary reports | Not disclosed |
Sources: rwa.xyz asset pages for BUIDL, BENJI and JTRSY (figures as of October 29, 2026); Janus Henderson release and secondary reports for JQQQ. The other funds are tokenized money-market or Treasury products; JQQQ tracks stocks.
The comparison shows how different the targets are. The best-known tokenized funds hold Treasuries or money-market assets and are aimed at cash management. JQQQ holds equity exposure, and CoinDesk calls an earlier Janus Henderson and Anemoy S&P 500 fund a similar product. Each fund also depends on a legal wrapper that limits who may buy, so a token that moves freely on a blockchain can still be restricted by the rules of the fund behind it.
The size of the market around it
According to rwa.xyz on October 29, tokenized U.S. Treasury products total $14.54 billion across 119 funds with 85,612 holders, and all distributed real-world assets excluding stablecoins total $39.30 billion. Stellar shows $3.77 billion of distributed assets on rwa.xyz, led by Spiko, Ondo and Franklin Templeton’s BENJI, while the Janus Henderson release says Stellar real-world assets passed $4 billion this year, a difference that likely reflects different measures. Our earlier look at the sector put the total near $34 billion, though snapshot dates and definitions vary. Cointelegraph also reports that DTCC plans to connect its tokenization service to Stellar, with assets expected in the first half of 2027. For the U.S. side of tokenized equities, see our report on the SEC’s relief for tokenized stocks.
The yen stablecoin side deal
The SBI and Startale item is smaller and earlier. The Japanese-language release describes a basic agreement with BlackRock Financial Management and BlackRock Japan to examine connecting a tokenized money-market fund with JPYSC, a trust-type yen stablecoin, across three workstreams: technology, business and sales, and regulation and market development. It states no binding terms, no financial terms and no deadlines, and it does not name the fund; crypto.news notes BlackRock’s BUIDL is not specified. The Block reported that JPYSC launched on June 24, 2026, issued by Shinsei Trust and initially distributed only to SBI VC Trade accounts.
What we could not verify
JQQQ’s custodian, administrator, fee schedule, share classes and token standard are not in the primary release. We found no separate Nasdaq statement beyond a quote inside Janus Henderson’s announcement, and the publication date is reported as October 26 by CoinDesk and October 27 by Janus Henderson’s own page. Whether the BlackRock agreement is binding, or involves any particular fund, is not disclosed.
Why it matters
Tokenization is widening from cash-like funds to stock-market exposure, and the structure matters as much as the technology. JQQQ shows a pattern that is likely to repeat: a global asset manager, a specialist infrastructure firm and a public blockchain building a product first for non-U.S. professional investors, where the rules are simpler. Whether ordinary investors ever get comparable products depends on U.S. regulators, which is the thread running through our tokenization coverage. This is reporting, not investment advice.
Further reading
- Janus Henderson: launch of blockchain-native fund tracking the Nasdaq-100
- Stellar: Janus Henderson and Centrifuge launch JQQQ
- Cointelegraph: Janus Henderson and Centrifuge launch tokenized Nasdaq-100 fund
- Ledger Insights: Janus Henderson launches native tokenized Nasdaq-100 fund
- SBI, Startale and BlackRock basic agreement (PR Times, Japanese)
- rwa.xyz: tokenized Treasuries
Frequently asked
What is JQQQ?
JQQQ is a blockchain-native fund from Janus Henderson and Centrifuge that seeks to track the Nasdaq-100 index under a Nasdaq license. It is structured as a segregated portfolio within a British Virgin Islands company and launches on the Stellar network.
Can U.S. investors buy JQQQ?
No. The announcement says it is not available to U.S. persons and is limited to eligible investors where it may be lawfully offered. Secondary reports say the target is professional investors outside the U.S.
Is JQQQ the same as a Nasdaq-100 ETF?
No. Investors get indirect economic exposure to the index, without beneficial ownership of it or shareholder rights in the underlying companies, and the announcement does not describe the product as an ETF. Its eligibility limits and offshore structure differ from a U.S.-listed fund.
Is JQQQ open for subscriptions?
That was not confirmed. Headlines say it launched, but the primary release says it is launching, and two outlets reported that Centrifuge’s portal showed subscriptions were not yet open or seeding soon.
What did SBI, Startale and BlackRock agree to?
They signed a preliminary basic agreement to study linking a tokenized money-market fund with JPYSC, a yen stablecoin. It sets no binding terms, deadlines or financial terms and does not name the fund. For the general idea, see our tokenization glossary entry.