Ted Hisokawa
Jan 15, 2026 12:32
Galaxy closes its first CLO with $50M anchor from Grove, bringing structured credit products to Avalanche as tokenized RWAs cross $20 billion market-wide.
Galaxy has closed its first-ever collateralized loan obligation, issuing $75 million in tokenized debt tranches on Avalanche with Grove anchoring the deal at $50 million. The transaction marks another milestone for institutional structured credit moving onchain, arriving just days after tokenized real-world assets crossed the $20 billion threshold globally.
The CLO’s debt tranches are now listed on INX’s platform for qualified investors, with the blockchain-native structure promising instant settlement and improved secondary-market liquidity compared to traditional CLO infrastructure.
Grove Doubles Down on Avalanche Credit Strategy
Grove’s $50 million allocation extends its earlier $250 million deployment into tokenized RWAs on Avalanche announced in 2024. The firm has positioned Avalanche as a core platform for its institutional credit roadmap, citing predictable settlement costs and performance characteristics suited for programmatic capital operations.
“This transaction marks another meaningful step forward for onchain credit, demonstrating how familiar securitization structures can be brought onchain without compromising institutional standards,” said Sam Paderewski, Co-Founder at Grove Labs.
Rather than a one-off deal, Grove appears to be building persistent infrastructure on the network. The allocation expands the credit product types Grove supports beyond its initial treasury and structured credit positions.
Why CLOs Matter for Crypto
Asset-backed finance represents an estimated $6.1 trillion market today, with projections suggesting the total addressable market could exceed $20 trillion. CLOs specifically pool below investment-grade corporate loans into tranches with varying risk-return profiles—complex instruments that have historically relied on manual, resource-intensive workflows.
Smart contracts can automate reporting, enforce cash-flow logic, and support compliance monitoring. Stablecoin settlement rails enable faster funding cycles, reducing idle capital. For allocators, the pitch is operational efficiency gains that legacy infrastructure struggles to deliver.
Securitize launched a tokenized AAA CLO fund with BNY providing services back in October 2025, signaling growing institutional appetite for bringing structured credit onchain.
Avalanche’s Institutional Footprint Expands
Galaxy’s CLO joins a growing roster of institutional products on Avalanche. Apollo runs daily NAV calculations, subscriptions, and redemptions for its Diversified Credit Fund (ACRED) on the network. KKR tokenized exposure to its Health Care Strategic Growth Fund II on Avalanche in 2022—one of the earliest major alternative investment strategies distributed on a public blockchain.
Janus Henderson’s Anemoy funds, issued via Centrifuge, also operate natively on the network.
AVAX traded at $51.81 at press time, unchanged over 24 hours despite the announcement. The token’s muted reaction suggests markets may be pricing institutional adoption as an ongoing trend rather than a catalyst for immediate price action.
For Galaxy, the CLO represents an evolution of its lending and asset management capabilities through debt capital markets. The firm can now scale loan originations using a familiar institutional framework while offering investors access to credit products with blockchain-native settlement characteristics. Whether this translates to meaningful volume on INX’s secondary market will determine if the tokenization premium holds.
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