Franklin Templeton executive discusses the company's tokenization journey on Stellar, highlighting Benji, a tokenized U.S. government money market fund that enables peer-to-peer transfers and yield earning on chain.
At Meridian in Rio, a Franklin Templeton representative detailed the firm's evolution into digital assets, starting from 2010 when the head of their group's son received Bitcoin as a gaming tournament prize. Franklin Templeton officially began exploring blockchain in 2017-2018, ultimately choosing Stellar to tokenize a U.S. government money market fund due to its speed, low costs, and token-level controls meeting SEC requirements. Benji, their flagship product, is now available in four versions globally and enables real-world use cases including peer-to-peer transfers, intraday yield earning, and portfolio company funding. The speaker emphasized that regulatory collaboration was crucial, taking 18 months to enable peer-to-peer functionality. Franklin Templeton has built proprietary wallet infrastructure and a digital transfer agent, positioning itself as a guide for other institutions exploring tokenization at scale.
