Franklin Templeton Launches Tokenized Money Market Fund BENJI on the Avalanche Network

Avalanche

Franklin Templeton, a leading global investment firm with $1.6T in assets under management, has expanded its L1 blockchain footprint by extending the availability of its first-of-its-kind on-chain money market fund to the Avalanche network. The Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX or the Fund) was incepted in 2021 and is the first and only U.S.-registered mutual fund to leverage a public blockchain as the system of record to process transactions and record share ownership. Due to its broad scope of capabilities and activity, including the growth of tokenized assets, the landscape of institutional participants leveraging Avalanche's technology has swelled over the years.

One share of the $420 million Fund is represented by one BENJI token. Token holders can gain exposure to the Fund through the Benji Investments app. Franklin Templeton also recently announced enhanced utility for the fund compared to those offered by traditional financial market rails. Benji wallet holders may now convert USDC stablecoin to fund their investment in shares of FOBXX and may transfer shares peer-to-peer on the public blockchain. In the future there may be additional utility for the fund such as secondary market trading and collateral mobility.

The tokenized U.S. money market fund (MMF) market has grown to $1.81 billion at present, partly because blockchain-enabled funds strive to offer a wider range of capabilities, and investors are seeking a return on their tokenized fiat holdings. Institutions have increasingly been exploring the combination of blockchain, smart contract, and tokenization technology as a means of upgrading financial services infrastructure and institutional workflows.

A number of both sell- and buy-side institutions, including Franklin Templeton, have been leveraging the Avalanche network to pursue their digital asset strategies. Avalanche’s EVM compatibility, sub-second transaction finality, low transaction fees, customizability, and impressive consistency have proven compelling for institutional deployments. Institutions are drawn to the suite of enterprise-grade infrastructure and increased focus on tokenization and on-chain finance.

"I’m thrilled to see the Avalanche platform supporting the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund," said John Wu, President at Ava Labs. "Franklin Templeton shares a mutual commitment to developing transformative digital financial products and services that will meet on-chain investor demand today and bring off-chain capital and users into the ecosystem tomorrow."

Since 2018, Franklin Templeton Digital Assets has been building blockchain-based technology solutions, running node validators, and developing a wide range of investment strategies. The firm’s dedicated digital assets research team leverages fundamental “tokenomic” analysis, insights from an embedded data science team, and deep industry connections to help inform product development and investment decisions.

“Bringing the Benji platform to the Avalanche network further expands access to our first-of-its-kind tokenized money market fund,” said Roger Bayston, Head of Digital Assets at Franklin Templeton. “We look forward to working with Avalanche’s vibrant developer community to bring new blockchain-enabled innovations into the market.”

Given MMFs’ crucial and foundational role in financial markets, Benji marks a key puzzle piece within the rapidly evolving Avalanche ecosystem. This collaboration highlights Avalanche's growth of institutional infrastructure and primitives as it helps to drive forward the future of finance.

Individual investors can gain exposure to FOBXX through the Benji Investments app, available in mobile app stores for Android and Apple devices. Institutional investors can gain exposure through the Benji Institutional web portal, Franklin Templeton’s proprietary blockchain-integrated recordkeeping system. They may hold their wallets on the Avalanche network upon request and subject to eligibility.

About Avalanche

Avalanche is a smart contracts platform that scales infinitely and regularly finalizes transactions in less than one second. Its novel consensus protocol, Subnet infrastructure, and HyperSDK toolkit enable Web3 developers to easily launch powerful, custom blockchain solutions. Build anything you want, any way you want, on the eco-friendly blockchain designed for Web3 devs.

About Franklin Templeton

Franklin Resources, Inc. [NYSE:BEN] is a global investment management organization with subsidiaries operating as Franklin Templeton and serving clients in over 150 countries. Franklin Templeton’s mission is to help clients achieve better outcomes through investment management expertise, wealth management and technology solutions. Through its specialist investment managers, the company offers specialization on a global scale, bringing extensive capabilities in fixed income, equity, alternatives and multi-asset solutions. With more than 1,500 investment professionals, and offices in major financial markets around the world, the California-based company has over 75 years of investment experience and over $1.6 trillion in assets under management as of July 31, 2024. For more information, please visit franklintempleton.com and follow us on LinkedIn, X and Facebook.

You could lose money by investing in the fund. Although the fund seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, it cannot guarantee it will do so. An investment in the fund is not a bank account and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. The fund’s sponsor is not required to reimburse the fund for losses, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the fund at any time, including during periods of market stress. Although the fund invests in U.S. government obligations, an investment in the fund is neither insured nor guaranteed by the U.S. government.

All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. There are risks associated with the issuance, redemption, transfer, custody, and record keeping of shares maintained and recorded primarily on a blockchain. For example, shares that are issued using blockchain technology would be subject to risks, including the following: blockchain is a rapidly-evolving regulatory landscape, which might result in security, privacy or other regulatory concerns that could require changes to the way transactions in the shares are recorded. The fund’s yield may be affected by changes in interest rates and changes in credit ratings. These and other risks are discussed in the fund’s prospectus.

Investors should carefully consider a fund’s investment goals, risks, charges and expenses before investing. To obtain a summary prospectus and/or prospectus, which contains this and other information, talk to your financial professional, call us at (800) DIAL BEN/342-5236 or visit franklintempleton.com. Please carefully read a prospectus before you invest or send money.

Please note that you generally may only buy shares of a fund eligible for sale in your state or jurisdiction. The Fund is intended for sale to residents of the United States, and, with very limited exceptions, are not registered or otherwise offered for sale in other jurisdictions.

Franklin Distributors, LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC.

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