In 1993, the first exchange traded fund (ETF) was launched. At the time, most of Wall Street shrugged. Mutual funds dominated, brokers reigned supreme, and the idea that investors would flock to a new wrapper for index exposure seemed far-fetched. Three decades later, ETFs have reshaped the way the world invests. 15,000 ETFs hold more than US$17 trillion in assets globally, power countless retirement portfolios, and are at the very core of financial markets. What began as an experiment is now the default.

Will tokenization have a bigger impact than ETFs?

Today, we are on the cusp of another revolution of potentially greater magnitude. Tokenization of real-world assets on blockchain rails is not a futuristic thought experiment. It is happening right now – and with clear client benefits as highlighted previously in: Blockchain and tokenization: Transforming asset management on behalf of clients. The core idea is simple: take traditional financial instruments – bonds, equities, credit portfolios – and represent them digitally on public blockchains. This makes them programmable, portable, and instantly transferable. In other words, it allows investors to move a US Treasury bond as easily as sending an email.

At Janus Henderson, we haven’t been waiting on the sidelines. Last year we partnered with Centrifuge to launch a liquid Treasury fund issued directly on-chain. In just a few months it grew to more than US$400 million in assets under management, as investors sought solutions to bring traditional investments on-chain. Building on that success, we expanded with our flagship securitized strategy, which invests in AAA collateralized loan obligations and has already scaled on-chain to US$750 million. This is no longer theory; it is live investor capital flowing through new rails.

Of course, skepticism remains in large swaths of traditional finance where arguments focus on regulation, entrenched legacy systems, or lack of investor comfort. But we heard similar doubts about ETFs even as recently as the last ten years when the trend was already fully apparent. And while the arguments shift, skepticism is the leading response to virtually every breakthrough innovation in finance. The truth is that adoption does not happen linearly by entrenched players changing their ways. It happens slowly, then all at once, as industry stalwarts are disrupted to a point they can no longer ignore. The world changes around us, and what seemed niche becomes normal.

Why is tokenization different?

Tokenization is different from past attempts to modernize finance, because it is not just a new wrapper or a new distribution mechanism. It is a new foundation. The infrastructure of global capital markets evolves slowly, and the benefits of tokenization suggest it has in large parts been left behind. Settlements take days when they could take seconds. Costs are embedded in layers of intermediaries. Access is limited via a small club of institutions. Investors and issuers alike are frustrated. Tokenization addresses these frictions directly. By moving assets on-chain, investors get instantaneous settlement, radical transparency, and the ability for investment products to do entirely unimagined things. In the same way that mobile has led to new business and transformed consumer behavior, blockchain has the potential to spawn whole new models of finance.

The implications go beyond efficiency. Tokenization opens the door to a more inclusive financial system. Imagine a teacher in Jakarta holding the S&P 500 in her digital wallet and using that to secure a loan for a new business idea, or a worker in London sending frictionless, interest-bearing micro payments to a family member in São Paulo. Tokenization allows institutions to serve clients who have historically been locked out. It also allows institutions who already utilize these investments to completely modernize the way they engage with their assets. It makes those assets more accessible, portable, and usable in a new era of programmable finance.

By providing the rails to issue, manage, and distribute tokenized funds, Centrifuge’s technology has enabled us to bring these products to market quickly and securely. The partnership has allowed a 90-year-old, global asset manager with US$450 billion in assets under management to operate with the speed, transparency, security, and interoperability that only blockchain can deliver. The result is a proof point for the potential re-platforming of the global financial system.

Time for financial firms to make a choice

The question now is not whether tokenization works. It clearly does. The real question is whether asset managers and regulators will move fast enough to capture the opportunity or will instead watch as new entrants build a parallel system that better meets the needs of global investors.

We believe it is important not to wait for permission to innovate. The generational technology revolution for finance is not AI, it is blockchain. The technology is mature, the benefits are undeniable, and the momentum is here now. Traditional financial firms face a choice: embrace tokenization and shape the next chapter of global finance or watch as the transformation happens without us. We firmly believe that being part of the change allows leaves us better positioned to invest together with clients and build a brighter financial future.

A version of Nick’s article first appeared in CoinDesk on 23 September 2025: Tokenization Is Finance’s Next ETF Moment, And Wall Street Isn’t Ready

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Anemoy Limited and Centrifuge are not affiliated with Janus Henderson or any of its subsidiaries.

U.S. Treasury securities are backed by the U.S. government and generally carry low credit risk and yields.