Franklin Templeton firmly lays out its strategy in the crypto market: from Bitcoin ETF to DeFi integration, promoting the tokenization of global assets.

At the 2025 Crypto Valley Conference, Franklin Templeton executives shared the company's long-term strategy for crypto assets. Since 2018, the company has invested in Blockchain research, launched the world's first tokenization money market fund, and actively laid out its DeFi and public chain ecosystem. This article will delve into its crypto transformation path and future outlook.

Early Belief: Started laying out encryption assets since 2018 Catriona Kellas, the legal head of Franklin Templeton's International Digital Projects, stated that the company recognized the technological potential of encryption assets as early as 2018. At that time, it was not seen merely as an asset class, but approached from a foundational technology perspective, continuing to invest even during the crypto winter.

The company has currently launched Bitcoin ETFs, Ethereum ETFs, and other crypto-related funds. The team continues to study token economic models and pays attention to whether emerging projects have long-term customer value.

The world's first tokenized currency fund developed independently In 2021, Franklin Templeton launched the world's first tokenized money market fund established under the U.S. Investment Company Act of 1940. The fund is built on the Stellar Blockchain, complies with SEC regulatory requirements, and features token-level control capabilities.

It is worth noting that Franklin Templeton chose to build its own underlying technology architecture to gain a deep understanding of Blockchain technology. This approach enhances technological control and strengthens communication with regulatory authorities.

Why choose Stellar as the tokenization infrastructure Catriona pointed out that Stellar meets its compliance and operational standards in terms of cost control, security, smart contract support, audit capabilities, and node stability. Stellar can provide token position management functionality to meet SEC regulatory requirements, making it the preferred main chain at present.

In addition, the company has deployed other public chains in response to global demand, but has always adhered to the due diligence standards accumulated in traditional asset management to ensure client safety and trust.

Asset tokenization goes beyond financial markets Catriona emphasized that the future of tokenization is not limited to traditional assets such as stocks or bonds; fields like IP and cultural assets will become new growth points. For example, popular singer Rihanna once tokenized music copyrights, allowing fans to hold shares of song revenue, thereby expanding the investor base and portfolio diversity.

Why firmly choose public Blockchain instead of private chain Franklin Templeton believes that public chains outperform private chains in terms of transparency and verification mechanisms. Within the framework of regulatory compliance, high-quality public chains can also provide the necessary privacy and security guarantees after rigorous evaluation.

DeFi Integration and Second-level Yield Distribution Mechanism The company is currently focusing on the development of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and has implemented on-chain funds, peer-to-peer transfers, and intraday profit distribution functions. Catriona revealed that the profit distribution mechanism is currently applying for a patent, which can accurately measure the asset holding time down to every second, truly achieving efficient profit sharing.

This mechanism not only enhances the liquidity of traditional assets but also allows them to be used for collateral purposes in Decentralized Finance, thereby expanding the practical application scenarios of tokenized assets.

Benji Project Global Expansion Plan Currently, the Benji project has been approved by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to launch a new version under the VCC framework. The team has also launched a private equity strategy fund that includes multiple cryptocurrencies and plans to continuously optimize the functional modules based on customer needs.

The future goal is to bring Benji into more traditional financial scenarios, including corporate finance, liquidity management, and lending services, allowing Web2 users to understand the value of Web3 products.

Conclusion: Franklin Templeton has demonstrated how to integrate traditional financial experience with blockchain technology to create secure and compliant crypto products for institutional users. As projects like Benji continue to advance, the role of crypto assets in the global financial landscape will become increasingly important.