- Franklin Crypto’s head revealed that Franklin Templeton is pivoting more into digital assets to assert its dominance as an asset manager.
Franklin Templeton, one of the largest investment management firms in the world, opened the month with the launch of the Franklin Crypto division. The expansion also marked its acquisition of 250 Digital Asset Management, a cryptocurrency investment management firm.
In a recent interview, the lead of the newly created division highlighted that Franklin Templeton is pivoting more into crypto to broaden its digital asset investment platform.
Franklin Templeton Leaning More Into Crypto
Christopher Perkins, Head of Franklin Crypto, stated that his team aims to scale with the rapid advancements of the digital assets sector. They aim to leverage crypto to establish their company’s market dominance.
“This is the first you will hear about scale,” said Perkins. “We didn’t come here to be small; we came here to be the leading active manager in the world.”
Additionally, Perkins claimed that many customers and institutions were previously reluctant to participate in the crypto space. It’s all due to the reputational and operational risks it entails. Fast-forward to the present, and he pointed out that there’s a significant risk if one has missed out on its innovations.
The Franklin Crypto official emphasized that Franklin Crypto is about solving investment clients’ problems to unlock more value from their capital. He said his group will support them in navigating through the digital asset ecosystem while mitigating the risks inherent in the sector.
Perkins was the CEO of 250 Digital Asset Management and President of Coinfund. The 250 Digital firm was the spinout of Coinfund’s liquid crypto strategies.
Franklin Templeton has yet to disclose the figures involved in its acquisition of 250 Digital. However, a press release states that its closing includes BENJI tokens as payment consideration. These assets represent shares in the Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX), with a $1 net asset value per token.
Franklin Templeton’s AUM and Largest Crypto Offerings
Franklin Templeton reported $1.68 trillion in assets under management (AUM) in 2025. The same year also signaled its strongest performance in the Swiss market.
BENJI, the company’s US-regulated money market fund, has a total asset value of $1.01 billion. Most of its value is held on the Stellar (XLM) network at $651.5 million. At the same time, the company has distributed the remaining tokens across BNB Chain (BNB), Base (BASE), Arbitrum (ARB), Ethereum (ETH), Avalanche (AVAX) C-Chain, and Polygon (POL).
Moreover, it’s worth noting that Franklin Templeton is one of the issuers of major crypto exchange-traded funds in the US. These include the Franklin Bitcoin (BTC) ETF (EZBC), with $373 million in total net inflows; the Franklin XRP ETF (XRPZ), with $215.5 million in AUM; and the Franklin Ethereum ETF, with $65 million in net inflows.
