Franklin Templeton, one of the major players in traditional finance, announced that it has established a new unit focusing on crypto assets after completing the acquisition of 250 Digital. The New York-based investment company aims to provide services for sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and similar institutional investors with this structure called Franklin Crypto.
New structure came into effect after the acquisition
Franklin Templeton, which has $1.78 trillion under management, closed 250 Digital transactions following the agreement reached in April. The crypto investment company in question was established in January by separating from CoinFund. The new step indicates that the company is moving its activities in the field of digital assets to a more corporate framework.
Franklin Templeton is now moving away from the image of an institution doing limited experiments in the crypto space. According to the statement, the company runs active cryptocurrency strategies in which XRP Ledger, Stellar, Polygon and Aptos infrastructures stand out.
Mini dictionary: XRP Ledger is known as a blockchain network focused especially on payment and asset transfer. Stellar similarly focuses on cross-border transfers, while Polygon and Aptos are among the networks used in broader application development areas.
The management includes well-known names from the industry.
The newly established Franklin Crypto unit is headed by Christopher Perkins, an experienced name in the crypto industry. On the investment side, Seth Ginns is the Chief Investment Officer. The duo will work closely with Tony Pecore of the Franklin Templeton Digital Assets team.
Franklin Templeton is also allocating its own capital to liquid cryptocurrency strategies previously managed by CoinFund; This approach shows that the company’s interest in digital assets is deepening at the institutional level.
Another noteworthy detail in the company’s statement was that part of the purchase was financed using BENJI tokens. BENJI represents the on-chain version of the Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund.
Mobility continues on the ETF front as well
Franklin Templeton has been active in the crypto industry in recent years. Earlier this week, the company filed for two new Bitcoin-linked exchange-traded funds. The products named Franklin US Equity Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF and Franklin US Innovation Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF are planned to offer investors a distribution of 95 percent US stocks and 5 percent Bitcoin.
The company also attracted attention with the XRP ETF it launched last year. During the trading week from June 14 to June 18, Franklin Templeton’s spot XRP ETF, XRPZ, recorded the highest net inflows in its category. The fund saw net inflows of $6.7 million over the five-day period.
Franklin Templeton, headquartered in the USA, is known as a well-established financial institution that has been operating in the field of asset management for a long time. Recent steps reveal that the company has made its products and strategies for the cryptocurrency market more visible.
