Ethena lands Janus Henderson backing as asset manager invests in ENA, eyes USDe distribution

FinanceShareShare this articleCopy linkX iconX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailEthena lands Janus Henderson backing as asset manager invests in ENA, eyes USDe distributionThe deal underscores the trend of traditional asset managers backing DeFi infrastructure, following BlackRock's Uniswap and Apollo's Morpho investments.By Krisztian Sandor|Edited by Stephen Alpher Jun 9, 2026, 2:54 p.m. 2 min readMake preferred on What to know: Asset management firm Janus Henderson made a strategic investment in Ethena's governance token, ENA.The $480 billion asset manager plans to allocate treasury cash into USDe and explore distributing the yield token through exchange-traded products.The deal comes days after Coinbase Ventures invested in Ethena and announced a partnership to bring Ethena products to its user base.Ethena continues to deepen its ties with traditional finance, announcing 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 tokenized funds of collateralized loan obligations (CLO), 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 yield-bearing synthetic dollar, as part of its treasury cash management strategy, according to a Thursday announcement.The firms are also exploring ways to offer USDe to Janus Henderson clients through exchange-traded investment products.ENA jumped 5% following the announcement before paring gains. It was down 8% over the past 24 hours as braoder crypto markets slipd"We are really excited about the possibility here," Nick Cherney, head of innovation at Janus Henderson Investors, told Coindesk in a message. "We believe very deeply that innovation in blockchain is being led by the defi community, and that we need to continue to forge partnerships with leading f…

Ethena lands Janus Henderson backing as asset manager invests in ENA, eyes USDe distribution

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