Janus Henderson backs Ethena stablecoin with AAA CLOs

Janus Henderson, the asset manager overseeing roughly $480 billion, has taken a strategic stake in Ethena’s ENA governance token and agreed to back the protocol’s USDe stablecoin with tokenized AAA-rated collateralized loan obligation tranches. The firm will also hold USDe in its treasury for cash management.

Under the agreement, Janus Henderson will provide tokenized AAA CLOs to form part of USDe’s reserve backing. Ethena will allocate a portion of USDe’s backing into Janus Henderson’s liquid CLO token product. Janus Henderson may explore distributing USDe to its clients through exchange-traded instruments.

The tokenized CLO fund was created with Centrifuge under the Anemoy structure and is modeled on Janus Henderson’s $27 billion AAA CLO ETF. The on-chain version launched in 2025 and was initially seeded with $1 billion from the Sky ecosystem via Grove. AAA-rated CLO tranches are the most senior slices of securitized corporate loans and have historically shown low default rates.

Ethena’s reserves for USDe will now include corporate credit alongside crypto hedges and U.S. Treasuries. Janus Henderson will hold USDe as part of its treasury holdings and will support distribution of its tokenized high-quality CLO funds to Ethena’s network.

ENA traded down about 7% over 24 hours to roughly $0.083 at the time of reporting, well below its 2024 peak near $1.52. Observers said the token’s price reaction could depend on how quickly the USDe allocation goes live and on broader market conditions. Janus Henderson is also pursuing a proposed take-private transaction led by Trian Fund Management and General Catalyst.

In a post on X, Ethena founder Guy Young wrote that the partnership made the firm “excited to bring our first partner to market for USDe backing outside of BlackRock” and described the tie-up as the start of the network’s expansion into real-world assets.

The arrangement connects a traditional asset manager’s tokenized CLO product with a decentralized stablecoin protocol, following a broader trend of tokenized real-world assets being used in digital finance.