S&P Dow Jones Indices has licensed the S&P 500 Index to real world asset (RWA) tokenization platform Centrifuge, with the aim of creating an S&P 500 tokenized fund.
The license has been granted to Centrifuge’s asset management arm Anemoy Capital alongside established asset manager Janus Henderson, the sub fund manager.
“Our collaboration with Centrifuge enables investors to gain direct exposure to the S&P 500 Index – within a blockchain ecosystem that supports liquidity, transparency and interoperability,” said Cameron Drinkwater, Chief Product Officer at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “The potential from here – real-time, programmable, automated and 24/7 indexed portfolio solutions – is incredibly exciting.”
Research has shown that younger investors often favor alternative assets and crypto to stocks. For crypto investors, having all their assets in a single wallet is appealing, so tokenized stocks or funds will have a greater appeal to this market than the conventional versions. S&P also envisages licensing its indices to be embedded in DeFi protocols in the future.
Meanwhile, Centrifuge is not an unknown quantity. Last year it partnered with Janus Henderson for the Janus Henderson Anemoy Treasury Fund, a tokenized money market fund (MMF). The fund has performed well with assets under management of $447 million, largely down to Centrifuge’s longstanding relationship with stablecoin issuer Sky (formerly MakerDAO). Spark, one of the investment pools that invests Sky reserves, has a stake in the MMF of at least $376 million. This track record positioned Centrifuge as an attractive partner for the S&P 500 initiative.
Centrifuge was founded by the team behind Taulia, the supply chain finance startup acquired by SAP. From its early days in 2017, Centrifuge’s aim was to tokenize trade finance assets. This involved developing a relationship with stablecoin platform MakerDAO, which invested in the trade finance pools. After some important loans defaulted, it diversified the assets it was tokenizing to those with lower risk. These include tokenized treasuries and now the S&P.
