Global asset management leader Franklin Templeton has broadened the reach of its OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX) by launching it on the Aptos blockchain.
This development marks the fifth blockchain integration for the fund, following previous deployments on Stellar, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Avalanche. The initiative was facilitated in collaboration with the Aptos Foundation, as the firm seeks to extend exposure to its blockchain-integrated fund via its Benji Investments platform.
The Aptos blockchain, a Layer 1 network developed using the Move programming language originally from Meta’s Diem project, presents a scalable alternative to Ethereum’s network. The partnership aims to enhance interoperability between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) by bridging EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) and non-EVM ecosystems.
Franklin Templeton’s FOBXX fund is composed of low-risk U.S. government securities and repurchase agreements fully backed by government securities or cash. The expansion to Aptos has already garnered significant interest, with over $20 million in subscriptions at the time of launch.
Roger Bayston, Head of Digital Assets at Franklin Templeton, emphasized the strategic nature of this expansion. “We chose the Aptos Network given its unique characteristics that meet our rigorous suitability standards for the Benji platform. This is an important milestone in our ongoing journey to unlock new asset management capabilities with blockchain technology.”
The increasing popularity of tokenized government securities reflects a growing trend in asset tokenization. Franklin Templeton was a pioneer in this space, launching the first U.S.-registered fund to use blockchain for transaction processing and share ownership recording. Today, the market for tokenized government securities has surpassed $2 billion. However, competition is intensifying as BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, tokenized on Ethereum, has become a major player, overtaking Franklin Templeton’s fund with $520 million in assets under management.
Aptos Labs CEO, Mo Shaikh, praised the collaboration with Franklin Templeton, highlighting the benefits of decentralization and blockchain technology for institutional clients.
Franklin Templeton, with over $1.6 trillion in assets under management, continues to be a key player in the integration of blockchain technology within traditional asset management. The firm has been active in the crypto space since 2018 and has expanded its offerings to include a spot Bitcoin ETF (EZBC) and spot Ethereum ETF (EZET), demonstrating its commitment to exploring further crypto fund opportunities.
$APT, the native token of Aptos, is up 9% in the past 24 hours and 44% in the past month.
