Summary
- HashKey Exchange has started offering Franklin Templeton's tokenized money market fund, grBENJI, through its Earn channel.
- This fund comprises U.S. government money market instruments and dollar cash, with returns reflecting short-term Treasury yields.
- It is exclusively available to professional investors and is not open to the general public in Hong Kong.
Franklin Templeton has initiated the distribution of its tokenized money market fund on the HashKey Exchange, enabling clients on this Hong Kong platform to invest in a blockchain-enabled pool of U.S. government debt.
The fund, known as the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Liquidity Fund and traded under the name grBENJI, mainly invests in U.S. government money market instruments and dollar cash. It is now accessible through HashKey's Earn channel. With $1.8 trillion in assets under management, Franklin Templeton has operated a tokenized variant of this fund since 2021, marking a milestone as the first U.S.-registered mutual fund to utilize a public blockchain for tracking share ownership.
This offering is limited to professional investors, and it is explicitly stated that it "is not available for offering to the public in Hong Kong."
Fund Returns
The returns from such products are aligned with the short end of the Treasury yield curve. According to RWA.xyz, the BENJI token currently yields approximately 3.6% over both seven and 30 days, maintaining a net asset value of $1.00, with over 1,100 holders. However, the reported size of the fund may vary significantly based on whether one considers individual tokens or the entire suite.
Haiyang Ru, CEO of HashKey Exchange BG, noted that this listing meets the institutional demand for compliant yields from real-world assets. Chetan Karkhanis, senior vice president for digital assets client engagement at Franklin Templeton, indicated the firm's plans to extend its offerings "beyond tokenized money market funds into other tokenized products over time," utilizing HashKey's platform across locations including Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Dubai, and Bermuda.
In May, Franklin Templeton announced a strategic partnership with Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, aimed at tokenized equities, custody solutions, and actively managed yield products. BENJI is set to be integrated into Kraken as collateral and a cash management solution for institutional clients. The firm has also expanded to the BNB Chain following a collaboration with Binance, and has formed partnerships with DigiFT in May and MoonPay Trade in June, the latter facilitating direct stablecoin swaps into the fund for institutions.
Additionally, Franklin Templeton has established a dedicated crypto division alongside its distribution efforts, launching Franklin Crypto following its acquisition of CoinFund spinoff 250 Digital, finalized in June. In this deal, Franklin Templeton utilized BENJI tokens as part of the payment, marking a step toward executing mergers and acquisitions on-chain.