Franklin Templeton, a global asset management firm, has extended its Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund to the Avalanche network.
The “first-of-its-kind onchain money market fund” on Avalanche will be the “expansion to the layer-1 blockchain,” as stated in a press release shared with Cointelegraph.
Benji Investments, Franklin Templeton’s blockchain-integrated record-keeping system, is accessible to institutional investors through the fund inaugurated in 2021.
“[Investors] may hold their wallets on the Avalanche network upon request and subject to eligibility.”
The decision to expand to Avalanche
The decision of Franklin Templeton to expand to Avalanche is a continuation of the firm’s existing digital asset initiatives, which has been evident in the digital assets teams’ emphasis on blockchain technology since 2018.
John Wu, president of Ava Labs, expressed his enthusiasm for the fund’s expansion to the Avalanche network in the press release:
“Franklin Templeton shares a mutual commitment to developing transformative digital financial products and services that will meet onchain investor demand today and bring offchain capital and users into the ecosystem tomorrow.”
Wu elucidated the importance of the fund’s expansion into the Avalanche ecosystem in a Q&A with Cointelegraph, characterizing it as a “foundational piece.”
“Blockchain and tokenization enable traditional finance to more easily reach people and businesses, offering new capabilities that are not possible via traditional rails.”
ETF filing for Franklin Templeton
The global asset management firm applied to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on August 16 to establish a new exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Designed to serve as a comprehensive crypto portfolio and monitor the performance of the CF Institutional Digital Asset Index, the Franklin Crypto Index ETF is a novel exchange-traded fund (ETF).
According to Katalin Tischhauser, the director of investment research at Sygnum, index ETFs are the “next logical step” due to the efficiency of indices for investors.
Fund launch on Arbitrum
Franklin Templeton also announced the fund launch on Arbitrum on August 8, aiming to bridge the gap between traditional and decentralized finance.
To generate low-risk investment yields, users of the fund on the Benji Investments platform can acquire and hold its tokenized shares on Arbitrum.
Franklin Templeton now provides tokenized shares on Avalanche, Arbitrum, Stellar, and Polygon due to the fund’s extensive endeavours, including the Avalanche network.
