Franklin Templeton Says Asia Leads Tokenization by Three Years

Franklin Templeton sees Asia setting the pace in tokenized finance. Chetan Karkhanis, the asset manager’s senior digital assets executive, says Korea, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong are running roughly two to three years ahead of other regional markets, Cryptobriefing reported.

His assessment lands alongside a separate move: the firm’s Benji platform now lets eligible institutional clients pledge tokenized money market fund shares as collateral on the Bybit exchange. Franklin Templeton announced the collaboration on Sept. 28, Crypto.news reported.

Key facts

• Karkhanis places Korea, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong roughly two to three years ahead of other regions in tokenized finance adoption, according to Cryptobriefing.
• The Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund, or FOBXX, held $686.64 million in net assets as of Aug. 31, with one BENJI token representing one fund share, Crypto.news reported. Bitcoinist referred to the tokenized fund in the Bybit arrangement as a $687 million vehicle.
• Eligible institutional clients can pledge Benji-issued fund shares through ByCustody, which holds the assets off-exchange while Bybit recognizes their mirrored value for USDT or USDC trading credit, Crypto.news reported.
• Franklin Templeton’s fund page listed a seven-day current yield of 3.57% as of Sept. 16 and a seven-day effective yield of 3.63%, according to Crypto.news.
• Bybit and Franklin Templeton also plan a wallet-based tokenized wealth product using the Mantle blockchain, with no launch date, composition, eligibility rules or jurisdictions disclosed, Crypto.news reported.

Collateral that stays off the exchange

The Bybit program is the first to connect the Benji Technology Platform to ByCustody and Bybit’s trading infrastructure. Rather than transferring fund shares onto the exchange, institutions keep them in the supported custody structure and pledge them against trading activity, according to Bitcoinist. Clients continue to receive fund yield while the same position supports a trading line.

Bitcoinist framed the shift plainly: a fund share that earns yield while sitting idle is useful, while one that simultaneously supports a trading position becomes part of market infrastructure. The outlet noted that interest in off-exchange collateral has grown following large exchange failures and security incidents.

The pattern is not new for Franklin Templeton. The firm and Binance launched a comparable institutional program in February that lets eligible clients use Benji-issued tokenized money market fund shares as off-exchange collateral, announced on Feb. 11. Bybit has also tested related infrastructure: in June, quantitative fund Calais Digital Assets used UBS’s tokenized uMINT money market fund as off-exchange collateral through Bybit, ByCustody and DigiFT.

Asia’s regulatory head start

Cryptobriefing attributes the regional gap to regulatory groundwork. Singapore’s Monetary Authority has established clear frameworks for digital asset innovation, and Hong Kong’s Fintech 2030 plan lays out a roadmap for integrating blockchain technology into the financial system.

Franklin Templeton’s Asia-Pacific record tracks that. It launched Hong Kong’s first tokenized money market fund in November 2025, followed by a collaboration with DBS Bank on Singapore’s first tokenized retail money market fund, targeted for a Q1 2026 launch. In May 2026 it partnered with DigiFT to distribute tokenized products to accredited and institutional investors across the wider region, and in August 2026 it launched the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Liquidity Fund with HashKey Exchange, initially for professional investors in Hong Kong.

The common thread is Benji, the firm’s blockchain infrastructure, which in 2021 powered the first US-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain. Cryptobriefing reported that tokenized real-world assets on public blockchains grew from about $5.5 billion in 2021 to $18.6 billion by 2025, driven mainly by US government securities.

Franklin Templeton’s latest filing put total assets under management at $1.83 trillion as of Aug. 31, up from $1.79 trillion at the end of July, with cash-management assets of $85 billion at month-end, according to Crypto.news.

Why it matters

Tokenized money market funds are moving from a holding product to trading collateral, which changes how institutional desks manage both yield and margin. For exchanges, offering recognized off-exchange collateral is a way to attract large clients without asking them to move assets onto the venue. Franklin Templeton’s Asia emphasis suggests the region’s licensing frameworks, not crypto-native demand alone, are driving the pace.

A forward-looking claim about adoption gaps is a directional view on market structure, not investment advice, and the tokenization market remains volatile and uncertain.

What to watch

Bybit and Mantle are expected to release details on the planned wallet-based tokenized wealth product separately, and no timetable has been given. The yield on FOBXX will also be a data point, with the fund’s most recently published seven-day current yield at 3.57% as of Sept. 16.

Disclaimer: This article is for information only and is not investment, financial or trading advice. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile. Always do your own research.

Sources: Crypto Briefing, Crypto.news, Bitcoinist