Wall Street is taking another step onto the blockchain.
Yesterday, global asset manager Janus Henderson announced the launch of JQQQ, a tokenised investment fund tracking the Nasdaq-100 Index. It is home to some of the world’s biggest technology companies, including Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft.
Developed alongside Centrifuge and operating on the Stellar blockchain, the fund brings exposure to one of the world’s most recognised stock market indices directly onto blockchain infrastructure.
For now, access is limited to eligible professional investors outside the US, with a minimum investment of $100,000. But the significance goes beyond who can invest today.
Traditional finance is no longer simply experimenting with blockchain. It’s beginning to build financial products directly on it.
And yet, not everyone is convinced.
In an interesting contrast, technology giants including Oracle, Intel and IBM have joined a growing list of 26 companies objecting to proposals to tokenise their individual shares through a separate trading platform backed by OKX and Intercontinental Exchange.
Half of wall street is embracing the new change and the other half is pushing back.
The potential benefits are clear: more efficient settlement, programmable financial products and the possibility of markets operating beyond traditional trading hours.
But questions remain around ownership rights, liquidity, regulation and who ultimately controls these new markets.
The launch of JQQQ is another indication that tokenisation is moving beyond cryptocurrency into mainstream financial infrastructure.
The question is no longer whether Wall Street will move on-chain, but how much of it will be willing to make the move.