Ethena continues to deepen its ties to traditional finance and announced a deal with asset manager Janus Henderson that includes a strategic investment in the protocol’s governance token.
Under the agreement, Ethena will allocate and help distribute Janus Henderson’s collateralized loan obligation (CLO) tokenized funds, the protocol said in a Tuesday X post.
Meanwhile, Janus Henderson, with $480 billion in assets under management, made a strategic investment in Ethena’s ENA token and plans to use USDe, Ethena’s synthetic yield dollar, as part of its treasury cash management strategy, according to an announcement Thursday.
The companies are also exploring ways to offer USDe to Janus Henderson clients through exchange-traded investment products.
ENA jumped 5% following the announcement before cutting profits. Down 8% in the last 24 hours as broader crypto markets fall
“We are very excited about this possibility,” Nick Cherney, head of innovation at Janus Henderson Investors, told Coindesk in a message. “We deeply believe that the defi community is leading innovation in blockchain and that we must continue to forge partnerships with leading founders and protocols.”
The deal fits into the trend of traditional financial companies increasingly adopting and supporting decentralized financial infrastructure (DeFi). Earlier this year, BlackRock (BLK) expanded its tokenized money market fund through a partnership with Uniswap and also invested an undisclosed amount in the decentralized exchange’s UNI token, while Apollo Global Management (APO) struck a deal with lending protocol Morpho to bring tokenized private lending assets to the chain and invest in the protocol’s governance token.
Last week, Coinbase Ventures revealed its first investment in Ethena and announced a partnership that will bring Ethena products to Coinbase’s more than 100 million users. Separately, Ethena expanded its relationship with crypto bank Anchorage Digital to support institutional lending activity through Anchorage’s Atlas collateral management platform.
Ethena has become one of the largest decentralized finance protocols by offering yield through its USDe token, which combines stablecoin demand with derivatives-based hedging strategies. After reaching roughly $15 billion in assets during last year’s market rally, the protocol currently manages around $5 billion as crypto markets continue to recover from a prolonged downturn.
“Ethena has shown that even now it is possible to innovate in the stablecoin space, and we continue to see great opportunities in its business,” added Cherney of Janus Henderson.
