News Archives: May, 2026
Franklin Templeton (BEN) released its latest earnings earlier this week, and the earnings call briefly mentioned tokenized money funds. During the Q&A, Brian Bedell from Deutsche Bank asks, "Actually, one on Franklin Crypto. Jenny, if you could just talk a little bit about ... what market are you targeting for that and the different product types as you evolve your Franklin digital assets? And then also on the tokenization of money funds and BENJI [Franklin OnChain US Govt Money Fund, FOBXX]. [What is] your view as to what extent we'll see the development of tokenized money funds accelerate given obviously, the use cases and the yield cases, especially within the digital asset platforms?"
CEO Jennifer Johnson responds, "So, first of all, why do I love blockchain? Because it's a really efficient technology that drives down costs. So that's a good thing for us as an industry and for our clients. But you have to have a wallet to actually hold a token. The wallet is just a cryptography that matches to that token, but you just have to have it. And all of our traditional distributors, very few of them actually have a wallet. So you have to go to the exchanges."
She continues, "So when you ask me, 'Where is the kind of immediate opportunity?' `It's an exchange, a crypto exchange, Kraken and Ondo, Coinbase, Binance that have wallets there. And two things are happening. One is ... it's an obvious place to integrate BENJI. So people want to put money into cash. If it's in their stablecoin, they don't earn any yield, so they can shift it into a money market fund and earn yield on that. So that's an obvious opportunity for us."
Johnson also says, "The second thing that's happening, and you just take the top 5 exchanges, they have 1 billion wallets there. So from a new client base, [it's] kind of interesting, and they're thinking about offering traditional products there. So we have launched, I think, 8 ETFs, tokenized ETFs on one of the exchanges and 5 on the other, and we're talking to other exchanges. So we've got 8 on Kraken and 5 on Ondo. And these are just in case those investors are interested in more traditional products.... You couldn't hold an ETF or a mutual fund unless it was tokenized and because they have no other way of holding it. So we think that's an interesting new opportunity for us."
In other news, a press release titled "Stable Sea Announces Strategic Relationship with WisdomTree to Bring Tokenized Treasury Access to Businesses" tells us "Stable Sea ... announced a strategic relationship with WisdomTree (WT), a global asset manager with more than $150 billion in assets under management, to bring tokenized treasury access to businesses. This collaboration enables Stable Sea users to earn yield by investing operating cash in, and gaining exposure to, WisdomTree's tokenized money market fund, which may have been challenging to access in existing workflows."
It continues, "Stable Sea users will be able to access WisdomTree tokenized funds in an embedded workflow in Stable Sea's technology platform. Leveraging this technology, eligible Stable Sea users may establish a limited scope broker-dealer relationship with WisdomTree Securities, Inc., an SEC registered broker-dealer, for the purpose of facilitating transactions in shares of select WisdomTree tokenized funds, beginning with the WisdomTree Treasury Money Market Digital Fund (WTGXX)."
The release explains, "Tokenized money market funds are one of the fastest-growing segments of on-chain financial products. Assets in tokenized U.S. Treasury and money market funds have grown from under $1 billion in early 2024 to more than $10 billion by early 2026, driven by offerings from major asset managers like WisdomTree. This rapid adoption reflects growing business demand for modern, always-on access to cash-equivalent products delivered through blockchain-based infrastructure."
Will Peck, Head of Digital Assets at WisdomTree, comments, "Tokenization is transforming how investors and institutions access financial products. Our connectivity with Stable Sea extends that innovation to a new audience enabling businesses to access registered funds in an efficient and digitally native way. Treasury management use cases have been a leading driver of the adoption we have seen of our tokenized money market fund WTGXX in the past year. We're thrilled to bring this product to more businesses throughout the United States through our collaboration with Stable Sea."
For more, see our Crane Data News, "March MFI: More Tokenized MMFs; Money Market ETFs Live; Cunningham" (3/6/26), Crane 100 Money Fund Index Ticks Back Up to 3.50%; SEC, WisdomTree" (2/24/26) and "WisdomTree Treasury MM Digital Fund" (9/5/25).
In related news, Bloomberg writes, "BlackRock Targets the Idle Cash Piling Up on Crypto Exchanges." The article says, "BlackRock Inc. is bringing its roughly $2.5 billion money market fund to cryptocurrency exchange operator OKX, with Standard Chartered Plc holding the underlying assets -- the latest sign that Wall Street infrastructure and digital-asset markets are converging. Under the arrangement, the tokens of the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) sit in regulated custody at Standard Chartered while showing up as available collateral on OKX, meaning traders can post it as margin while it keeps earning interest instead of sitting idle."
The piece adds, "The setup solves a basic inefficiency: cash posted as collateral on crypto exchanges has traditionally earned virtually nothing. BlackRock's fund, which invests in Treasuries and repurchase agreements and is designed to hold a stable $1 value, turns what would otherwise be idle cash into a productive asset, a structure that is starting to grow in crypto markets. For now, access is limited to investors in the Middle East."
The press release, "A New Utility Framework for Tokenized RWAs, Delivered with BlackRock and Standard Chartered," explains, "Today, through our collaboration with BlackRock and Standard Chartered, we are introducing a new utility framework for tokenized real-world assets in digital asset markets. With this new framework, a tokenized U.S. Treasury fund can serve as both yield-bearing on-exchange margin and off-exchange collateral within one integrated framework. Qualified investors can deploy BlackRock's BUIDL, a tokenized U.S. Treasury fund issued on public blockchain rails, as trading collateral on OKX while continuing to earn U.S. dollar yield benchmarked against the U.S. Federal Funds rate. At the same time, assets can be held in regulated custody with Standard Chartered, marking the first-ever G-SIB-backed off-exchange tokenized collateral framework."
Finally, Circle writes on "The Role of Financial Institutions and Fintechs in a Stablecoin World." They state, "When stablecoins first emerged, some treated them as a threat to traditional finance. Digital dollars that moved near-instantly across borders seemed to leave little room for financial institutions and fintechs such as banks, payment service providers (PSPs), or other intermediaries. But payment systems rarely change by replacing one model overnight. They evolve through integration, regulation, and new forms of coordination."
