In a Block by Block interview, Sandy Kaul of Franklin Templeton reflects on five years of Benji on Stellar. The money market fund demonstrates how blockchain removes operational friction: moving 50,000 transactions from $75,000 to $1.13 in costs. Kaul explores the smart contract realization that triggered the bet and Franklin Templeton's path to being the first institutional player on-chain.
Sandy Kaul, head of digital assets at Franklin Templeton, discusses the five-year evolution of Benji, the first U.S.-registered money market fund on Stellar. The interview traces her personal journey from cryptocurrency skepticism to blockchain evangelist: learning about Bitcoin in 2012, the "aha moment" with Ethereum's smart contracts, and the 2017 report predicting tokenization. Kaul details how Benji proved the operational case: 50,000 transfers that cost $75,000 on traditional systems cost $1.13 on Stellar. She emphasizes that the bet on blockchain was fundamentally about transfer-agent efficiency, cost removal, and enabling self-executing contracts that reduce middle and back-office overhead. The conversation explores how a 75-year-old asset manager became the first institutional issuer on-chain and what that signals for the future of financial infrastructure.
