- Payward (Kraken‘s parent) and Franklin Templeton are collaborating to bring traditional financial products onto blockchain networks.
- The partnership includes integrating Franklin Templeton’s BENJI tokenized money market funds into Kraken’s platform for institutional collateral and cash management.
- The collaboration reflects a broader Wall Street trend into crypto, highlighted by Franklin Templeton’s recent acquisition of investment firm 250 Digital to launch a dedicated crypto division.
Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, and global asset manager Franklin Templeton announced a strategic collaboration Tuesday aimed at bridging traditional finance and blockchain technology. Their partnership focuses on tokenizing equities and yield products, providing a new class of programmable financial assets.
The deal specifically includes integrating Franklin Templeton’s BENJI tokenized money market funds into Kraken’s platform, where they could serve as collateral or cash management tools for institutional clients. Consequently, this move is designed to create blockchain-based alternatives for traditional treasury operations.
Payward co-CEO Arjun Sethi stated, “Payward and Franklin Templeton are building toward a model of finance where the distinction between traditional assets and digital infrastructure no longer holds,” according to a joint announcement. He emphasized that the convergence unlocks products that wouldn’t have been possible three years ago.
Payward’s xStocks framework, which has processed over $30 billion in volume, will explore new actively managed on-chain investments with Franklin Templeton. Meanwhile, these strategies from one of the world’s largest asset managers will become tradeable on a blockchain.
The firms plan to make some products available to institutional investors and, in certain jurisdictions, to retail Kraken users. Franklin Templeton’s head of digital assets, Sandy Kaul, said, “The focus should be on making on-chain assets more functional for the full range of market participants once they are there.”
This collaboration underscores the accelerating erosion of boundaries between Wall Street and digital assets. It follows Franklin Templeton’s recent push into the space, including its launch of a dedicated cryptocurrency division via the acquisition of investment firm 250 Digital.
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