Franklin Templeton expands tokenized fund to Arbitrum

• Franklin Templeton has launched its US government money fund on Ethereum Layer 2 network Arbitrum.
• The asset manager’s expansion of FOBXX adds to accessibility on Stellar and Polygon.

Franklin Templeton, a global asset manager with $1.66 trillion in assets under management, has expanded its money market fund, the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX) to the Arbitrum blockchain.

The firm announced the move on Aug. 8, with the collaboration with Arbitrum Foundation seeing the Wall Street giant now offer its FOBXX fund to investors on three blockchain networks. Apart from Arbitrum, FOBXX is also live on Stellar (XLM) and Polygon (MATIC).

“We are excited to see Franklin Templeton join the Arbitrum ecosystem and look forward to the transformative impact their participation will bring to our community,” Steven Goldfeder, co-founder and CEO of Arbitrum contributor Offchain Labs, said.

FOBXX launches on Arbitrum

Franklin Templeton launched FOBXX in 2021, with at least 99.5% of the fund’s total assets invested in US government securities, cash and repurchase agreements. These are fully collateralized by US Treasury debt or cash.

Franklin Templeton’s @FTI_DA OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund is now available on Arbitrum!

We’re excited to have access to the BENJI platform and see a major financial institution, Franklin Templeton, build on Arbitrum!https://t.co/CRWCFyz3NM pic.twitter.com/yrlwflYOow

— Arbitrum (💙,🧡) (@arbitrum) August 8, 2024

According to the press release, investments in FOBXX will be via Franklin Templeton’s proprietary blockchain-integrated platform Benji. The launch on Arbitrum will see eligible investors access it on-chain.

“Expanding into the Arbitrum ecosystem is an important step on our journey to empower our asset management capabilities with blockchain technology,” Roger Bayston, Head of Digital Assets at Franklin Templeton, noted.

FOBXX ranks behind BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) in terms of market cap with $412 million compared to over $510 million as per data on rwa.xyz on August 8, 2024. Ondo Finance’s US Dollar Yield (USDY) has a market cap of $299 million to rank third.