Digital Asset Pursuit: Franklin Templeton Strives for Leading Position in the Cryptocurrency Sphere
In a significant move, global investment giant Franklin Templeton has been making waves in the digital assets space with its novel technology platform, Benji. The platform, which was first used in a U.S.-registered mutual fund launched by Franklin Templeton in 2021, has since expanded to offer tokenized money market funds across various blockchains.
Max Gokhman, the deputy chief investment officer for Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions, joined the company in December 2022 from AlphaTrAI. He took on his current role in February 2023, and Gokhman believes that a large asset manager like Franklin Templeton, with $1.57 trillion in assets under management as of 31 May 2025 and over 1,500 investment professionals around the world, can make a big difference in the digital assets space.
One of the key features of the Benji platform is intraday yield. In traditional finance, interest is typically calculated at the end of a trading day and distributed to investors at the end of each month. However, with the Benji platform, investors can earn interest for part of the day even if they transfer their tokenized security to another investor. This feature, introduced as patent-pending intraday yield, enables proportional calculation and distribution of yield, down to the second, when a tokenized security is transferred from one party to another.
The platform also allows the purchase or redemption of tokenized securities using stablecoins, making it easier for investors to manage their digital assets. It is available on a number of public blockchains, including Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, and Stellar.
Franklin Templeton has also secured regulatory approval to launch the first retail tokenized fund in Singapore this year. The platform has added compliant, permissioned wallet-to-wallet token transfers on supported blockchain networks, further enhancing its security and usability.
Venture capital firm a16zcrypto has stated that BENJI tokens act as the legal system of record, making onchain entries the legally binding source of truth. The platform has also been used to launch the first fully tokenized UCITS fund in Luxembourg in 2024.
Gokhman argues that innovation and being a first mover are important in the digital assets industry, as giants can get toppled quickly due to disruption. He believes that tokenization will democratize access for retail investors to asset classes such as private markets. Franklin Templeton is working on projects that involve royalty streams, fine art, and collectible assets for institutional, family office, and retail investors.
The Benji technology platform's intraday yield functionality, fully onchain settlement, the use of multiple blockchains, and the ability to tokenize assets are seen as differentiators for Franklin Templeton in the competitive digital assets landscape. The platform is also available as a white label technology for banks or asset managers to tokenize securities, potentially revolutionizing the financial industry.
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