Franklin Templeton, a leading asset manager with $1.5 trillion in assets under management, has announced the availability of its OnChain U.S. Government Money Market Fund (FOBXX) on the Ethereum blockchain through the layer-2 solution Arbitrum.
This marks the third blockchain platform where the fund’s shares can be traded. Previously, the fund was tokenized on Stellar and Polygon, which is another layer-2 network of Ethereum.
“The Stellar network serves as the official record of share ownership for the Franklin OnChain U.S Government Money Fund,” a spokesperson for Franklin Templeton informed CoinDesk. “Additionally, the Fund may utilize the Polygon and Arbitrum networks for specific accounts upon request and meeting eligibility criteria. Initially, Arbitrum will be accessible to institutional wallets.”
By expanding onto the Arbitrum ecosystem, the Wall Street investment giant aims to bridge decentralized finance with the traditional financial system and broaden its reach to a new audience for FOBXX.
“Our move into the Arbitrum ecosystem is a significant milestone in our journey to leverage blockchain technology to enhance our asset management capabilities,” stated Roger Bayston, head of digital assets at Franklin Templeton.
The OnChain U.S. Government Money Market Fund, launched in 2021, was the first to leverage a public blockchain for recording transactions and ownership. With a market cap of $420 million, it stands as the third-largest U.S. Treasury-linked on-chain product, as per data from rwa.xyz.
Following suit, numerous firms have ventured into tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) by migrating their funds onto blockchain platforms. Major players in this space include BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and crypto-native startups Securitize and Ondo Finance, all of whom have introduced tokenized funds in recent years.
BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) holds the title of the largest fund by market cap in this category. BUIDL operates on the main Ethereum chain, with Securitize overseeing the management of tokenized shares and maintaining official ownership records.