Franklin Templeton is positioning digital wallets as the core infrastructure for tokenised finance, arguing they will eventually hold the totality of an individual’s financial life.
Executives outlined the strategy at the Ondo Summit in New York on Feb. 3, saying the shift marks a move away from traditional account-based asset management toward a wallet-native model.
“Tokenised digital wallets will eventually hold the totality of an individual’s financial life,”
Said Sandy Kaul, Franklin Templeton’s head of innovation.
The firm is executing the strategy through its Benji platform, which tokenises stocks, bonds and private funds, enabling instant collateralisation, real-time settlement and lower processing costs.
Franklin Templeton said public blockchain infrastructure can cut total processing costs by as much as 82% compared with legacy financial systems.
The asset manager has already launched spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds and plans to expand tokenised products onto networks including BNB Chain, Solana and Arbitrum.
Roger Bayston, Franklin Templeton’s head of digital assets, said the expansion is designed to reach hundreds of millions of wallet users globally as the firm works toward placing hundreds of billions of dollars of assets on-chain.
At the time of reporting, Bitcoin price was $70,657.49.