In brief
- New York Life Investment Management, which oversees $807 billion in assets, has teamed with blockchain platform Centrifuge to launch its first-ever tokenized fund.
- The fund keeps NYLIM’s existing investment process intact, but allows eligible investors to access it on-chain, with transactions settled in USDC.
- The deal reflects a growing trend of Wall Street firms experimenting with tokenization to modernize operations and tap into DeFi markets.
New York Life Investment Management, one of the country’s largest active asset managers, is moving a piece of its fixed-income business onto the blockchain, partnering with tokenization platform Centrifuge to offer a high-yield corporate bond strategy to crypto-native investors.
The companies announced Tuesday the launch of the NYLIM Anemoy U.S. High Yield Corporate Bond Segregated Portfolio, trading under the ticker HYB. It is NYLIM’s first tokenized product, and one of the earliest attempts to bring a high-yield bond fund onto public blockchain infrastructure, according to the announcement.
NYLIM manages roughly $807 billion in assets. Under the arrangement, the firm’s existing high-yield strategy—including its investment process and risk management—will remain unchanged, but eligible investors will be able to buy in through tokens issued on Centrifuge’s platform, with subscriptions and redemptions settled in the stablecoin USDC.
Thomas Sy, NYLIM’s head of multi-asset solutions, said in a statement that tokenization reflects investor demand for “transparency, efficiency and broader market participation,” and that the firm sees blockchain infrastructure as a complement to its traditional platform rather than a replacement.
Centrifuge co-founder Anil Sood framed the deal as part of a broader push to migrate institutional funds onto more “transparent” and “composable” digital rails, rather than a one-off product launch. Centrifuge already provides tokenization infrastructure for other large asset managers, including Apollo Global Management and Janus Henderson.
The fund is not being offered to U.S. persons or within the United States, the companies said, underscoring the regulatory caution that continues to shape how traditional asset managers experiment with tokenized products.
The deal arrives as Wall Street firms increasingly explore tokenization, the process of issuing traditional financial assets as digital tokens on a blockchain, as a way to modernize back-office plumbing and potentially widen access to institutional-grade investment strategies for a new class of investors operating in decentralized finance markets.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.