Avalanche

New York Life Investment Management, which oversees more than $300 billion in assets, is partnering with tokenization firm Centrifuge to move a US high-yield corporate bond strategy onto a public blockchain. The deal extends institutional blockchain adoption beyond the tokenized Treasury products that have dominated the space, into actively managed credit with a different risk profile.

• New York Life Investment Management (NYLIM) is tokenizing a US high-yield corporate bond strategy with Centrifuge.
• The product will run on the Avalanche blockchain, with subscriptions and redemptions handled in USDC.
• Access is restricted to qualified institutional buyers, not offered as a retail crypto product.

• $300B+ assets under management at NYLIM, the strategy’s issuer
• Sep 17 date the tokenization partnership with Centrifuge was announced

New York Life Investment Management is putting one of its fixed-income strategies on blockchain rails through a partnership with Centrifuge. The two firms announced plans to tokenize a US high-yield corporate bond strategy on Avalanche, with qualified institutional buyers able to subscribe and redeem their positions using USDC. The story was first reported by NewsBTC.

The underlying goal is not to repackage high-yield debt as a consumer crypto product. Centrifuge is instead building tokenization infrastructure around an institutional strategy that NYLIM already manages.

NYLIM Brings $300 Billion Platform Onto Avalanche

NYLIM oversees more than $300 billion in assets, giving the partnership scale that smaller asset managers experimenting with tokenization have lacked. Using Avalanche provides the product with a blockchain-based settlement and ownership layer, while USDC functions as the digital-dollar mechanism moving cash in and out of the fund.

For institutional investors, that combination can streamline the operational mechanics of shifting between cash and fund interests. That is particularly relevant in markets where tokenized products are designed to settle outside the fixed windows that govern traditional fund transactions. The companies detailed the partnership in a press release issued September 17.

Access Limited To Qualified Institutional Buyers

The tokenized strategy is not open to the general public. The announcement specifically frames eligibility around qualified institutional buyers, a threshold that limits how broadly the product can circulate even once it is live on Avalanche.

That restriction matters when assessing the reach of the deal. Tokenization here expands operational infrastructure for existing institutional clients rather than opening high-yield credit exposure to retail investors.

Credit Strategies Follow Treasuries Onto Public Blockchains

Tokenized Treasury products have so far been the clearest example of institutional blockchain adoption, offering cash-like government debt with minimal credit risk. High-yield corporate bonds carry a materially different risk and return profile, and bringing that asset class onto the same rails pushes tokenization further into actively managed credit.

NYLIM joins a growing list of established asset managers testing how conventional investment products can be issued and serviced through public blockchain infrastructure. The September 17 announcement does not specify a launch date, initial fund size, or which qualified institutional buyers have committed to participate.

The BlockWest read. The real test here is not Avalanche or USDC settlement mechanics but whether insurers and pension allocators will treat tokenized high-yield exposure as operationally equivalent to a traditional fund interest. If NYLIM’s institutional clients adopt this without friction, expect competing credit managers to follow with their own tokenized strategies rather than cede ground on custody and settlement speed.

NYLIM and Centrifuge have not disclosed a launch timeline, initial assets committed, or the identity of any qualified institutional buyers signed on so far, leaving the pace of actual onchain adoption as the open question for the strategy.