Franklin Templeton Expands Blockchain Presence With Launch Of Tokenized Money Fund On Solana

Fund management titan Franklin Templeton has launched its Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX) on Solana.

A SOL token called Benji (BENJI) representing shares in the fund has been deployed on the Solana network, the $1.6 trillion asset manager said in a Feb. 12 X post .

Franklin Templeton Expands Layer-1 Footprint

The FOBXX fund invests almost 100% of its assets in US government securities, cash and fully collateralized repurchase agreements. Its total assets stood at $512 million as of Jan. 31.

The launch of Franklin Templeton’s FOBXX on the Solana blockchain is part of the company’s mission to expand its “layer-1 footprint,” it said. This comes amid Solana’s growing presence in the institutional financial ecosystem.

In addition to Solana, Franklin Templeton has already deployed its BENJI token on other major layer-1 blockchains Ethereum and Avalanche, as well as on layer-2 networks including Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, and Aptos.

FOBXX is considered to be the first US mutual fund to tap blockchain technology for record-keeping and transaction processing.

Institutions’ Growing Presence In The Solana Ecosystem Could Cause This Layer-2 To Explode

This is not Franklin Templeton’s first move related to the Solana ecosystem. On Feb. 10, the firm registered a trust in Delaware linked to a SOL ETF (exchange-traded fund). Other asset managers have also filed applications for similar investment products.

Institutional investments in decentralized applications running on Solana rose 54% in the third quarter of 2024 to a total of $173 million. 

The increasing adoption of Solana by institutions could also benefit Solaxy (SOLX) , the first Solana layer-2 project.

Currently in presale, it has already raised over $20.3 million as investors back the idea of a layer 2 project designed to help reduce congestion and increase efficiency on the Solana blockchain.

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