Ethena has secured support from Janus Henderson as the asset management firm invests in ENA and looks to distribute USDe. This move highlights the increasing trend of traditional asset managers investing in DeFi infrastructure, following similar investments by BlackRock in Uniswap and Apollo in Morpho. Key points include: — Janus Henderson, a $480 billion asset management firm, has strategically invested in Ethena’s governance token, ENA. — The firm intends to allocate treasury funds into USDe and is exploring options to distribute this yield token via exchange-traded products. — This investment follows a recent partnership with Coinbase Ventures, which aims to introduce Ethena products to its extensive user base. Ethena is further solidifying its connection to traditional finance through its agreement with Janus Henderson, which includes a strategic investment in its governance token. According to a Tuesday post on X, Ethena will assist in the allocation and distribution of Janus Henderson’s tokenized collateralized loan obligations (CLO). Meanwhile, Janus Henderson plans to utilize USDe, Ethena’s yield-generating synthetic dollar, as part of its treasury cash management strategy, as revealed in a Thursday announcement. The companies are also investigating ways to offer USDe to Janus Henderson clients through exchange-traded investment products. Following the announcement, ENA experienced a 5% increase before losing some of its gains, now down 8% over the last 24 hours as broader cryptocurrency markets declined. «We are genuinely excited about the potential here,» stated Nick Cherney, head of innovation at Janus Henderson Investors, in a message to Decryptnews. «We firmly believe that innovation in blockchain is spearheaded by the DeFi community, and it’s essential for us to continue establishing partnerships with leading founders and protocols.» This partnership aligns with the trend of traditional finance entities increasingly supporting decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure. Earlier this year, BlackRock expanded its tokenized money market fund through a partnership with Uniswap and made an undisclosed investment in the decentralized exchange’s UNI token, while Apollo Global Management collaborated with lending protocol Morpho to bring tokenized private credit assets on-chain and invested in the protocol’s governance token. Last week, Coinbase Ventures announced its inaugural investment in Ethena and revealed a partnership aimed at introducing Ethena products to Coinbase’s over 100 million users. Additionally, Ethena has strengthened its collaboration with crypto bank Anchorage Digital to facilitate institutional lending via Anchorage’s Atlas collateral management platform. Ethena has emerged as one of the largest decentralized finance protocols by providing yield through its USDe token, which merges stablecoin demand with derivatives-based hedging strategies. After peaking at approximately $15 billion in assets during last year’s market surge, the protocol currently manages around $5 billion as cryptocurrency markets continue their recovery from a prolonged downturn. «Ethena has demonstrated that it is still possible to innovate within the stablecoin space, and we continue to see immense opportunities in their business,» Cherney from Janus Henderson remarked.