Franklin Templeton Adds BENJI Tokenized Money Fund to MoonPay Trade
Franklin Templeton has added its BENJI tokenized U.S. government money market fund to MoonPay Trade, letting institutional clients swap stablecoins such as USDC and USDT for fund shares on-chain. The companies describe the arrangement as the basis for a deeper strategic relationship.
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What the Integration Does
Franklin Templeton has listed its BENJI tokenized money market fund on MoonPay Trade, allowing institutional clients to swap USDC, USDT and other stablecoins for fund shares through MoonPay's on-chain trading platform. The companies announced the arrangement in a statement released Tuesday, and said it is expected to serve as the foundation for a broader strategic relationship between the two firms.
The Defiant characterized the listing as one of the first placements of a U.S.-registered tokenized money market fund on a third-party on-chain trading venue, a framing that the Franklin Templeton statement does not itself use. Crypto.news described the move as a new route between stablecoin liquidity and tokenized fund products, which is consistent with the companies' own description.
Use Cases Cited by the Companies
Franklin Templeton says the setup can support treasury management, portfolio rebalancing, collateral use and liquidity provision. Sandy Kaul, the firm's head of innovation and digital assets, said tokenized money market funds become more useful when they can move at the speed and with the programmability of digital asset networks, and described MoonPay as another trusted gateway between stablecoin liquidity and tokenized fund exposure.
Caroline Pham, who recently joined MoonPay Institutional as CEO after serving as acting chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said tokenized money market funds can improve liquidity and capital efficiency when institutions can reach the on-chain financial system.
MoonPay's Institutional Build-Out
MoonPay introduced MoonPay Trade in late May as an institutional on-chain execution platform. The company says it offers enterprises a single API covering more than 200 blockchains, with cross-chain routing, trade execution, settlement, collateral movement and tokenized asset transactions under compliance controls. The platform draws on technology from recent MoonPay acquisitions: Decent for cross-chain routing and liquidity, DFlow for trading technology, and Sodot for crypto key management.
MoonPay also said the BENJI deal extends its institutional business beyond crypto, fiat and stablecoins. Crypto.news separately reported that MoonPay launched an app inside ChatGPT's App Store on May 22, letting users generate crypto purchase links within the chatbot, with KYC and payment completed on moonpay.com.
Franklin Templeton's Tokenization Track Record
Franklin Templeton reported about $1.74 trillion in assets under management in its latest quarterly report. Its Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund, known as FOBXX or BENJI, launched in 2021 as the first U.S.-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain. The firm has extended BENJI through earlier partnerships, including work with Payward, the parent company of Kraken, on tokenizing additional investment products, and a Binance arrangement that supports BENJI as off-exchange collateral.
In April, Franklin Templeton agreed to acquire 250 Digital, a spinoff of CoinFund, to grow its crypto investment business. It is also working with Ondo Finance to tokenize a group of ETFs.
Scope of the Announcement
The sources agree on the core mechanics: stablecoin-to-fund swaps on MoonPay Trade, and the stated intent to deepen the relationship. The companies have not disclosed trading volumes, minimum sizes, fee structures or the set of eligible institutional clients, so the practical reach of the listing remains to be seen.
Why It Matters
For Traders
Stablecoin-to-fund routes on MoonPay Trade may add liquidity options for institutional treasury moves, but no volume or fee data has been published yet.
For Investors
A large traditional manager listing a registered tokenized money fund on third-party onchain rails signals gradual institutional adoption of tokenized cash-equivalent products.
For Builders
Teams building institutional onchain execution should watch how a single API and compliance layer handle tokenized fund settlement and collateral movement.
This article is for information only and is not financial advice. Read the full disclaimer.
