Franklin Templeton
Franklin Templeton is an asset manager from San Mateo, California, founded in 1947, that runs mutual funds, ETFs and managed accounts for private investors, financial advisors and institutions. Together with specialist managers such as Western Asset, ClearBridge Investments and Putnam Investments, the group managed about $1.8 trillion for clients in more than 150 countries in September 2026.
Investors use its funds for equities, bonds, private credit, real estate and secondary private equity, and since 2018 the firm has also built its own blockchain products. The best known is BENJI, a token that records shares of a US government money market fund on public blockchains such as Stellar, Ethereum and Solana, so holders can move fund shares between wallets.
Investment managers and assets under management
Franklin Resources, Inc. changed its corporate name to Franklin Templeton, Inc. on 17 August 2026, and its shares still trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BEN. Assets under management reached a record $1,791.6 billion at 30 June 2026, and alternative assets made up $294.2 billion after $11.8 billion of new fundraising in that quarter. The preliminary figure for 31 August 2026 was $1.83 trillion, after $8 billion of long-term net inflows in August.
Besides the Franklin and Templeton strategies, the group runs seven specialist investment managers: Benefit Street Partners for alternative credit, Clarion Partners for real estate, ClearBridge Investments for equities, Lexington Partners for secondary private equity, Putnam Investments, Royce Investment Partners for small caps and Western Asset for fixed income. More than 1,500 investment professionals work across these firms, and ten investment managers have joined the group since 2019.
BENJI: a US money market fund on public blockchains
The Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX) launched in April 2021 on Stellar as the first US-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain to process transactions and record share ownership. One fund share equals one BENJI token, and the fund invests at least 99.5 percent of its total assets in US government securities, cash and fully collateralized repurchase agreements. This tokenized money market fund pays its daily yield as newly minted tokens into the wallets of its shareholders.
BENJI reached Polygon in April 2023, then Arbitrum, Avalanche, Ethereum, Aptos and Base during 2024, followed by Solana in February 2025 and BNB Smart Chain in July 2025. Holders can transfer shares peer to peer since April 2024 and convert between the fund and USDC since June 2024. In June 2026, Franklin Templeton connected its Benji Technology Platform to the institutional trading service of MoonPay, so eligible institutions can switch between stablecoins and the tokenized fund onchain.
Tokenized funds in Luxembourg and Singapore
On 28 October 2024, the Luxembourg regulator CSSF approved the first fully tokenized UCITS fund that Franklin Templeton issues through its own blockchain-enabled transfer agency platform. The fund is Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Liquidity Fund, a sub-fund of the SICAV Franklin Templeton OnChain Funds, and its investment policy rules out any investment in cryptocurrencies. With the same Benji Technology Platform, Franklin Templeton launched the first retail tokenized fund in Singapore in 2025.
Franklin Templeton presents its tokenized funds at conferences in Germany and Switzerland. At Capital & Code in Frankfurt, Christian Machts, Country Head Germany & Austria at Franklin Templeton, joins KfW and Union Investment on a panel about tokenized money market funds. In Zurich, Franklin Templeton spoke with 21X, DFNS and AMINA at Tokenization & On-Chain Capital Markets, a side event of the Point Zero Forum.
Digital assets and the Franklin Crypto unit
Franklin Templeton Digital Assets has worked with blockchains since 2018, builds the technology behind Benji, manages crypto strategies and runs node validators, and it managed about $1.8 billion at 31 December 2025. On 1 April 2026, Franklin Templeton agreed to acquire 250 Digital, the team that ran the liquid crypto strategies of CoinFund, and formed the new unit Franklin Crypto. Christopher Perkins heads Franklin Crypto, Seth Ginns is its chief investment officer, and Tony Pecore of Franklin Templeton Digital Assets leads the unit with them under Sandy Kaul, Head of Innovation.
Part of the purchase price for 250 Digital is paid in BENJI tokens, which Franklin Templeton describes as a step toward company acquisitions settled onchain. Franklin Templeton also runs a listed bitcoin product, the Franklin Bitcoin ETF, which holds bitcoin directly like other spot bitcoin ETFs.
AI in distribution and investment teams
On 29 January 2026, Franklin Templeton launched Intelligence Hub, an AI platform for its US sales teams that runs on Microsoft Azure and draws on Microsoft Dynamics 365. Intelligence Hub automates list building, meeting preparation and the ranking of client contacts, and it extends a financial AI project that Franklin Templeton and Microsoft announced in April 2024. Both firms plan to grow the platform into a system of several AI agents for further business lines and regions.
Franklin Templeton also applies AI in asset management inside its investment teams. In November 2025 the firm signed a multi-year partnership with Wand AI, whose agents first served investment teams and then went into production in research, operations and digital transformation.
Upcoming fintech and finance events in Switzerland
What is Franklin Templeton?
Franklin Templeton is a global asset manager founded in 1947 that serves clients in more than 150 countries and had $1.8 trillion under management in September 2026. Since 17 August 2026 its listed parent company is called Franklin Templeton, Inc., and its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange as BEN.
How does the BENJI token work?
Each BENJI token stands for one share of the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund, whose transfer agent keeps the official share register on a blockchain-integrated system. The fund aims for a stable price of $1.00 per share and pays its daily yield as new tokens sent to the wallets of holders.
Does Franklin Templeton have a bitcoin ETF?
The Franklin Bitcoin ETF trades on Cboe under the ticker EZBC and has followed the bitcoin price since its launch on 11 January 2024. Coinbase Custody Trust Company holds its bitcoin, and the sponsor fee is 0.19 percent of assets a year.
Office in Zurich and the Swiss team
Franklin Templeton Switzerland Ltd has its office at Talstrasse 41 in Zurich, where Christian Leger heads the Swiss business. The Swiss team serves wholesale, institutional and ETF clients, has a sales manager in Geneva and a contact for digital asset partnerships.
Fund supervision in Europe
Franklin Templeton International Services S.Ã r.l. in Luxembourg is the management company of the tokenized UCITS fund, and the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) supervises it. The same regulator approved the tokenized UCITS fund in October 2024, before its launch on a public blockchain.
Tokenized funds, digital assets and Switzerland
Franklin Templeton and Finance Loop
Finance Loop covers tokenized funds, bitcoin ETFs and AI in fund management in the Investment & Digital Assets track, where Franklin Templeton belongs with BENJI and its tokenized UCITS fund. Franklin Templeton was the presenting partner of CV Summit 2026 in Zurich, the conference on institutional digital assets and AI that CV Labs organized on 29 and 30 September 2026.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.