Franklin Templeton

A global investment management firm founded in 1947 and managing over $1.5 trillion in assets as of 2025, which became one of the pioneering traditional asset managers to launch blockchain-native investment products. Franklin Templeton launched the Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (ticker: BENJI) in 2021 on the Stellar blockchain, making it the first US-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain for transaction processing and share ownership records. The fund later expanded to Polygon and other networks. BENJI operates as a tokenized money market fund, investing in US government securities and reverse repurchase agreements while recording share ownership on-chain, offering 24/7 transfer capability between on-chain wallets compared to the T+1 or longer settlement of traditional fund transfers. Franklin Templeton's early entry into blockchain-native fund structures gave it a significant head start over competitors, and the firm became one of the most active advocates for tokenized asset adoption within the traditional finance industry. Example: Franklin Templeton's BENJI fund became the second-largest tokenized Treasury product by assets under management by mid-2025, trailing only BlackRock's BUIDL, having accumulated several hundred million dollars in on-chain assets since its 2021 launch. Its multi-chain presence across Stellar, Polygon, Arbitrum, Avalanche, and Base gave it broader DeFi integration potential than single-chain competitors. Why it matters for Web3: Franklin Templeton's early and persistent commitment to blockchain-native fund structures validated the tokenized asset thesis before it became mainstream, demonstrating that regulated investment products could operate on public blockchains with institutional-grade compliance. Its presence helped establish the credibility framework that made subsequent institutional entries, including BlackRock's BUIDL, easier to justify to compliance teams and regulators.

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