Franklin Templeton Funds Token Effort, Expands $410M to Ethereum Blockchain

December 10, 2022, Brazil. In this photo illustration, the Franklin Templeton Investments logo is displayed on a smartphone screen
Source:AdobeStock
  • Franklin Templeton’s OnChain U.S. Government Money Market Fund (FOBXX) has expanded to Ethereum, the world’s second-largest blockchain by market cap.
  • FOBXX launched as the world’s first tokenised money market fund in 2021 on the Stellar blockchain and has previously expanded to the Avalanche, Base and Aptos networks.
  • FOBXX is currently the third-largest tokenised money market fund by market cap, at US$410 million — behind BUIDL with $545 million, and USDY at $452 million.

The world’s third-largest tokenised money market fund, Franklin Templeton’s OnChain U.S. Government Money Market Fund (FOBXX), has expanded to the Ethereum network.

The fund’s expansion to the second-largest blockchain by market cap means more investors will now have access to the fund, potentially boosting liquidity. 

Franklin Templeton’s fund first launched in 2021 on the Stellar network before expanding to Avalanche, Aptos, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer 2 network Base, and now Ethereum.

FOBXX currently has a market cap of approximately US$410 million (AU$634m). Only two tokenised money market funds have larger market caps: BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) with US$545 million (AU$843m); and Ondo’s U.S. Dollar Yield (USDY) at US$452 million (AU$699m).

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Related: BlackRock’s BUIDL Fund to Expand to New Blockchains Like Aptos, Avalanche and More

FOBXX A Tokenisation Pioneer

FOBXX was the world’s first money market fund to be tokenised on a public blockchain when it launched in 2021. Being tokenised allows the fund to be bought and sold using the supported crypto networks. Tokensiation also allows records of transactions and ownership to be immutably stored on-chain, simplifying record keeping.

According to real world assets tokenisation dashboard, rwa.xyz, Ethereum is far and away the preferred network for tokenised treasuries — with over US$1.6 billion (AU$2.4b) in tokenised assets on the network. Second for tokenised treasuries, Stellar, has a relatively paltry US$393 million (AU$607m) in assets with third placed Solana having US$134 million (AU$207m).

Blockchains used for real world asset tokenisation, source: rwa.xyz

Related: Real-World Asset Tokenisation Set for Explosive Growth, Predicts Report

The tokenisation of real world assets has emerged as one of the main narratives in crypto over the past few years and may be an important driver of the next bull run. If tokenisation does play a big part in the next bull run it could be good for Ethereum as the network looks set to continue its domination of the tokenisation space. 

According to a report published in April by asset manager Grayscale, Ethereum is “meaningfully decentralised” and “credibly neutral for network participants”, two attributes the asset manager says will give it the best chance to stay at the forefront of the tokenisation wave. 

From a crypto markets perspective, while a variety of assets may benefit from the tokenization trend, the one with the most potential may be the protocol that can serve as the unified platform for tokenized assets, investors, and related applications. At the moment, Grayscale Research believes the Ethereum blockchain has the best chance of serving this purpose in the future.

Grayscale report ‘Public Blockchains and the tokenization revolution’

Jody McDonald
Author

Jody McDonald

Jody is a Brisbane-based freelance writer who specialises in writing about business, technology, and the future of work.

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