JQQQ puts the Nasdaq-100 on Stellar—without putting the stocks onchain

Asset manager Janus Henderson and tokenization platform Centrifuge have launched JQQQ, a blockchain-based fund on Stellar that gives eligible investors outside the United States exposure to the Nasdaq-100 Index. The fund uses Centrifuge’s tokenization infrastructure and seeks to track the Nasdaq-100 under a licensing agreement with Nasdaq, according to a Tuesday announcement. The launch broadens Janus Henderson’s onchain investment offerings beyond US Treasurys and structured credit into equity-index exposure; 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 and provides indirect exposure to the Nasdaq-100 rather than ownership of the underlying stocks. It targets eligible professional investors outside the US, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported a minimum investment of $100,000.

The launch follows Nasdaq’s decision in April 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 $499 billion market cap Invesco QQQ Trust exchange-traded fund.

The Janus Henderson launch expands Stellar’s institutional tokenization footprint. The 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. US Bank is also testing a proprietary stablecoin in a cross-border Stellar transaction. 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.