Franklin Templeton Bets Big on Ethereum by Putting Fund on Polygon

Asset manager Franklin Templeton, which oversees $1.4 trillion on behalf of clients, today announced that one of its funds is now supported on the Polygon blockchain. 

One of the world’s largest asset managers, Franklin Templeton said Wednesday that its Nasdaq-listed OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX) would use Polygon so it could “be further compatible with the rest of the digital ecosystem.”

FOBXX is Franklin Templeton’s crypto product which puts cash into American government securities, cash and repurchase agreements. It currently has over $270 million in assets under management (AUM). 

It is the first U.S.-registered fund to use a blockchain to process transactions and record share ownership.

Polygon is the blockchain behind the 10th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, MATIC. It is a scaling platform for Ethereum, meaning that it works to make Ethereum faster and more efficient. 

Head of Digital Assets at Franklin Templetonton Roger Bayston said: “Extending the reach of the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund to Polygon enables the Fund to be further compatible with the rest of the digital ecosystem, specifically through an Ethereum-based blockchain.”

Colin Butler, Global Head of Institutional Capital at Polygon Labs, added that “Franklin Templetonton is at the forefront” of tokenizing assets. 

Investors can buy shares of FOBXX and hold them in digital wallets via the Benji Investments mobile app. 

Franklin Templeton has long been involved in crypto: It announced a digital asset venture fund two years ago, and started digitizing shares for a money market fund on Stellar’s blockchain back in 2019.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to correct Franklin Templeton's assets under management and reflect that the firm has had its fund on the Stellar network since 2019.