How new deal could reshape ETF industry

Blockchain technology and tokenization could challenge the traditional ETF model.

Janus Henderson said recently that it’s partnering with Anemoy Limited and Centrifuge to create Anemoy’s Liquid Treasury Fund (LTF), an on-chain technology-based fund that will give investors direct access to short-term U.S. Treasury bills.

“It’s not necessarily a threat to the ETF industry,” Nick Cherney, Janus Henderson’s head of innovation, said on CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week. “I think it’s more of a natural evolution of how we try to get the way in which we deliver investment services to clients to be more efficient and less costly.”

“We want to be early in that opportunity,” he said.

This is Janus Henderson‘s first tokenized fund, according to a news release by the firm.

Cherney notes it would have all the traditional features of an ETF. But investors could buy and sell it on a blockchain-based platform — with the end investor having exposure to “instantaneous 24/7 trading, instantaneous settlement, total transparency over fund holding, so even beyond what ETFs provide.”

He acknowledged it could irreversibly change the way business gets done for some.

“I think there are certainly people in the ecosystem for whom it’s potentially threatening, but you see those players getting involved,” Cherney added.

Strategas Securities’ Todd Sohn is concerned about the risks associated with constant trading availability.

“24/7 trading makes me nervous. That’s the one part where I’d want to be a little bit careful depending on who is using this,” the firm’s ETF and technical strategist said.