Franklin Templeton, a major player in the asset management space with $1.74 trillion in assets, has announced a significant advancement in the realm of tokenized financial products. The firm has integrated its BENJI tokenized money-market fund with MoonPay Trade, enabling institutions to swap stablecoins directly for shares of its US government money fund on a blockchain-based platform. This move marks one of the initial listings of a US-registered tokenized money-market fund within a third-party on-chain trading venue.
The integration, revealed in a joint statement, connects Franklin Templeton’s proprietary Benji Technology Platform—dedicated to blockchain recordkeeping and transfer agency functions—with MoonPay Trade’s advanced systems for institutional trading. As a result, BENJI holders will now have the capability to convert their holdings into stablecoin liquidity via MoonPay, facilitating applications in on-chain workflows such as treasury management, portfolio rebalancing, and securing collateral.
MoonPay, which has primarily garnered attention as a fiat-to-crypto onramp, is now establishing itself as a vital institutional trading venue capable of listing tokenized money market funds alongside traditional cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. This partnership enhances BENJI’s distribution framework far beyond Franklin Templeton’s own platforms, such as the Benji Investments app and its institutional portal. Additionally, BENJI now occupies a prominent position in the burgeoning tokenized-treasuries segment, which CoinGecko currently values at $11.2 billion within a more extensive real-world-assets category of $64.9 billion.
Sandy Kaul, Franklin Templeton’s head of innovation and digital assets, emphasized the importance of integrating tokenized money market funds within the rapidly evolving digital asset ecosystem: “Tokenized money market funds only become more useful when they can move with the speed and programmability of the broader digital asset ecosystem.” Caroline D. Pham, CEO of MoonPay Institutional and former acting chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, highlighted that while tokenized money market funds can enhance liquidity and capital efficiency, these benefits can only be realized if institutions are granted access to on-chain financial structures.
Currently, BENJI represents a share of the Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX), which launched in 2021 as the first US-registered mutual fund utilizing a public blockchain as its record-keeping method. The total asset value for BENJI is approximately $821 million. Although it still trails behind offerings from BlackRock and Ondo, BENJI is distinctly notable as the only top-tier entry backed by a US-registered mutual fund, which has restricted its trading options on many third-party platforms.
MoonPay initiated MoonPay Trade in late May as a comprehensive solution for institutions to engage in trading, liquidity transfers, and payment settlements across over 200 blockchains and protocols. The trading platform merges functionalities from several recent acquisitions, making it a centralized hub for institutional trading activities.
Franklin Templeton has actively sought to expand the reach of the BENJI token, previously partnering with Binance to facilitate the use of BENJI as off-exchange collateral, along with collaborations to tokenize various traditional investment products. Despite these advancements, access to BENJI through the MoonPay platform remains restricted to “eligible institutional users,” adhering to the Know Your Customer (KYC) and accreditation standards already applied to BENJI itself. Retail investors in the US will continue to transact through the Benji Investments app instead of the MoonPay platform. As for transaction fees for conversions between stablecoins and BENJI, neither party has disclosed the details.
The integration is seen as a foundational step toward a more extensive strategic partnership between Franklin Templeton and MoonPay, setting the stage for future innovations in the tokenized financial space.
