Ethena has forged a partnership with asset management giant Janus Henderson, marking a significant investment in the governance token, ENA. This collaboration is part of Janus Henderson's strategy to integrate decentralized finance (DeFi) elements into its operations.

This partnership highlights the growing trend of traditional asset managers investing in DeFi infrastructure, following BlackRock's and Apollo's recent initiatives.

By Krisztian Sandor|Edited by Stephen Alpher Jun 9, 2026, 2:54 p.m. 2 min readMake preferred on

Guy Young, CEO and cofounder of Ethena Labs (CoinDesk)

Key Details:

  • Janus Henderson, managing $480 billion in assets, has made a strategic investment in Ethena's governance token, ENA.
  • The firm plans to utilize USDe, Ethena's yield-generating synthetic dollar, in its treasury management.
  • This announcement follows a recent investment by Coinbase Ventures in Ethena, which aims to introduce Ethena products to its user base.

Ethena is deepening its integration with traditional finance through a new agreement with Janus Henderson, which includes a strategic investment in Ethena's ENA token.

As part of this deal, Ethena will assist in distributing Janus Henderson's tokenized funds related to collateralized loan obligations (CLO), as stated in a post on X.

In an announcement made Thursday, Janus Henderson confirmed its investment in Ethena's ENA token and highlighted plans to incorporate USDe into its treasury cash management strategy.

The two firms are also investigating methods to offer USDe to Janus Henderson’s clients via exchange-traded investment products.

Following this announcement, the ENA token saw a brief increase of 5% before regaining some losses, ultimately falling 8% in the last 24 hours amid a broader decline in the cryptocurrency market.

Nick Cherney, head of innovation at Janus Henderson Investors, expressed enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, "We are really excited about the possibility here. 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 founders and protocols."

This collaboration is part of a larger trend where traditional finance entities are increasingly supporting decentralized finance infrastructure. Earlier this year, BlackRock expanded its tokenized money market fund through a partnership with Uniswap, and also invested in the decentralized exchange’s UNI token. Similarly, Apollo Global Management partnered with the lending protocol Morpho to tokenize private credit assets.

Last week, Coinbase Ventures disclosed its first investment in Ethena and announced a partnership aimed at bringing Ethena's products to Coinbase's extensive user base of over 100 million. Ethena has also strengthened its relationship with crypto bank Anchorage Digital to facilitate institutional lending via Anchorage's Atlas collateral management platform.

Ethena has emerged as a prominent player in the DeFi space by providing yields through its USDe token, which combines stablecoin demand with derivatives-based hedging strategies. The protocol's assets peaked at approximately $15 billion during last year's market surge but currently manages around $5 billion as the cryptocurrency market continues its recovery from a lengthy downturn.

Janus Henderson's Cherney remarked, "Ethena has proven that even now it is possible to innovate in the stablecoin arena, and we continue to see huge opportunity in their business."

DeFi