In 1993, the first stock -traded fund was launched. At that time, most of Wall Street drew. Mutual funds dominated, brokers ruled as the top, and the idea that investors would flow into a new wrapping for index exposure seemed far from it. Three decades later, ETFs have reshaped the way the world invests. 15,000 ETFs have more than $ 17 trillion in assets globally, power countless pension portfolios and are at the heart of the financial markets. What began as an experiment is now standard.
Today we are at the forefront of another revolution with probably larger size. Tokenization of assets in the real world (RWA) on blockchain rails is not a futuristic thought experiment. It’s happening right now. The core idea is simple: Take traditional financial instruments – bonds, stocks, credit portfolios – and represent them digitally on public blockchains. This makes them programmable, laptop and instantly transferable. In other words, it allows investors to move a US government bond as easily as sending an E email.
At Janus Henderson we did not wait for the sidelines. Last year we collaborated with infrastructure provider centrifuge to launch a Liquid Treasury fund that was issued direct onchain. In just a few months, it grew to more than $ 400 million in assets under management as investors sought solutions to bring traditional investments on-chain. Based on this success, we expanded with our flagship JAAA strategy, which has already scaled to $ 750 million. This is no longer theory: It is Live Investor Capital that flows through new rails.
Of course, skepticism remains in large shards of traditional funding, with arguments focusing on regulation, rooted older 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 visible. And while the arguments are changing, skepticism is the leading reaction to virtually any breakthrough innovation in financing. The truth is that adoption does not happen linearly by anchored players who change their ways. It happens slowly, then at once as the industry -Stalwarts are disturbed to a point they can no longer ignore. The world changes around us and what seemed to be niche being normal.
Tokenization is different from previous attempts to modernize funding because it is not just a new wrapping or a new distribution mechanism. It’s a new foundation. The infrastructure of the global capital markets is slowly developing and has 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. Both investors and issuers are frustrated. Tokenization addresses these friction directly. By moving assets at chain, investors get immediate settlement, radical transparency and the ability of investment products to be integrated into decentralized financing. Just as Mobile has led to new business and transformed consumer behavior, Blockchain will spawn brand new financing models.
The consequences go beyond efficiency. Tokenization opens the door to a more inclusive financial system. Imagine a teacher in Jakarta holding the S&P 500 in his digital wallet and using it to secure a loan for a new business idea, or a London worker who sends friction -free, interest -bearing micro -payments to a family member in São Paulo. Tokenization allows institutions to serve clients who have historically been locked out of the traditional financial system. It also allows institutions that already use these investments to completely modernize the way they engage in their assets. It makes these assets more accessible, laptop and usable in a new era with programmable financing.
By delivering the rails to issue, control and distribute tokenized funds, the centrifuge’s technology has enabled us to bring these products to market quickly and safely. The partnership has enabled a 90-year-old, $ 450 billion AUM Global Asset Manager to operate with speed, transparency, security and interoperability that only blockchain can provide. The result is a point of evidence of the upcoming replacement of the global financial system.
The question now is not whether tokenization works. It makes it clear. The real question is whether asset managers and regulators will move fast enough to capture the opportunity, or will see instead, as new participants build a parallel system that better meets the needs of global investors.
The traditional funding industry cannot wait for permission to innovate. The generation technology revolution for financing is not AI, it is blockchain. The technology is mature, the benefits are undeniable, and the momentum is here now. Traditional financial companies face a choice: embrace tokenization and shape the next chapter of global funding, or see when the transformation happens without us.
