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Independent UK news and guides on tokenised equity, for founders raising capital, investors and the firms that support them. Published by Tokenisation Group Limited, London. Information only, not financial advice.

Janus Henderson JQQQ tokenised fund puts the Nasdaq-100 on Stellar

Writer: Shawn Jhanji
Shawn Jhanji
12 hours ago
4 min read
Salvador Dalí-inspired surrealist illustration of the Janus Henderson JQQQ tokenised Nasdaq-100 fund launching on the Stellar blockchain, featuring a melting Nasdaq-100 clock, golden JQQQ coin, Janus Henderson and Centrifuge branding, and a glowing Stellar sphere above a dream

Janus Henderson and Centrifuge launched JQQQ on 27 October 2026, a tokenised Nasdaq-100 index fund issued on the Stellar blockchain. The Janus Henderson JQQQ tokenised fund is a British Virgin Islands vehicle for eligible investors outside the United States, and the launch announcement does not mention a UK offer.


What Janus Henderson and Centrifuge launched

JQQQ is the Janus Henderson NASDAQ-100 Index Fund Segregated Portfolio. It aims to track the Nasdaq-100 Index under licence from Nasdaq and is issued and operated on the Stellar network, a public blockchain. Janus Henderson issues and manages the fund, while Centrifuge, a tokenisation infrastructure provider, supplies the technology for putting funds onchain.


The legal wrapper is a segregated portfolio of Anemoy Capital SPC Limited, a British Virgin Islands segregated portfolio company, meaning one company whose portfolios keep their assets and liabilities apart from each other. Anemoy Asset Management Limited is the investment manager and Janus Henderson Investors US LLC is the sub-investment manager.


Holders receive indirect economic exposure to the index, not ownership of the index or any shareholder rights in the companies behind it. The fund is open only to eligible investors in places where it can lawfully be offered, and US persons are excluded. The launch announcement describes fees as competitive, gives no figure and states no minimum investment.


Sean Wasserman, Nasdaq's head of index product management, said "demand continues to grow for exposure to established, transparent benchmarks".


An issuer-sponsored Nasdaq-100 index fund on the Stellar blockchain

Issuer-sponsored means the asset manager itself issues the onchain product. That differs from third-party stock tokens, which may be backed by shares held by a custodian or structured as separate instruments, and whose holders do not necessarily own the underlying shares or receive shareholder rights. JQQQ does not close the rights gap, since holders get economic exposure only, but it does put the manager and an index licence behind the product.


Janus Henderson is a London-based asset manager with roughly $500 billion under management. It says its onchain investment platform now holds more than $1 billion across Treasuries, structured credit and equities. JQQQ follows the Janus Henderson Anemoy S&P 500 Fund, known as SPXA, which was the first tokenised index fund licensed by S&P Dow Jones Indices.


Anil Sood, Centrifuge's chief strategy and growth officer, said: "Tokenization becomes much more powerful when the assets investors want to own can also become building blocks." Any collateral or lending use of that kind would come from independent third parties, and the announcement states that Janus Henderson does not offer, facilitate or endorse it.


Stellar holds about $3.8 billion of distributed tokenised assets on current tracking, the fourth largest ecosystem behind Ethereum, BNB Chain and Solana. DTCC, the US securities depository group, plans to connect its tokenisation service to Stellar, with assets expected in the first half of 2027.


JQQQ sits outside UK fund tokenisation rules

Nothing in the announcement says JQQQ is available to UK investors. The vehicle is a British Virgin Islands segregated portfolio, not a UK authorised fund, and the FCA's final fund tokenisation rules in PS26/7 are written for UK authorised funds. Whether a UK professional investor or adviser can hold or promote JQQQ depends on UK marketing and financial promotion rules that the announcement does not address.


The UK route is being built differently. Aviva Investors added a tokenised class to its Sterling Liquidity Fund this week, which keeps a regulated UK money market fund and changes how its shares are recorded. JQQQ is an equity index exposure in an offshore wrapper.


The practical reading for a founder or adviser is that JQQQ is a template, not a product to buy. A well-known manager issued an index tracker on a public chain using an off-the-shelf provider, the same Centrifuge infrastructure that Coinbase named its default tokenisation backbone in May, and the build did not need a UK rulebook. The counter argument is fair: the exposure is the same Nasdaq-100 that exchange-traded funds already provide, and the extra features depend on third parties the manager does not endorse.


The test to watch is whether a UK-authorised manager launches an equity index tracker as a tokenised share class under the FCA's rules, with fees, minimums and dealing terms published. Until one does, JQQQ shows what is technically easy and legally offshore. Earlier coverage of how tokenised fund redemption is being sped up shows where the UK effort is going. This is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice.


Key takeaways

  • Janus Henderson and Centrifuge launched JQQQ, a Nasdaq-100 index fund issued on Stellar, on 27 October 2026.

  • JQQQ is a British Virgin Islands segregated portfolio open to eligible investors outside the United States, with US persons excluded.

  • Holders get indirect economic exposure to the index, not ownership of it or shareholder rights.

  • UK-authorised managers would use the FCA's fund tokenisation rules in PS26/7, which JQQQ's offshore structure does not rely on.


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