Franklin Templeton CEO Says Blockchains Threaten Wall Street's Fee Revenue
Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson said at the Proof of Talk summit in Paris that traditional finance resists public blockchains because they threaten fee-based revenue. She cited the firm's tokenized money market fund Benji, where per-transaction costs fell from $1.30 on its legacy system to $1.13 on Stellar.
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Johnson's Argument
Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson said traditional financial institutions have been slow to adopt public blockchains because the technology undercuts their fee-based revenue, not because of technology skepticism. Speaking on a panel at the Proof of Talk summit in Paris, Johnson said intermediaries that collect transaction fees at each step of settlement stand to lose that income once smart contracts can perform the same functions more cheaply.
Johnson oversees $1.74 trillion in assets at Franklin Templeton. Coverage of her remarks differs in framing: CoinDesk summarized the position as Wall Street fearing blockchain because it threatens profits, while Bitcoin Magazine described the resistance as a defense of fee-based revenue specifically. Both reports attribute the same core claim to Johnson.
Cost Figures from Benji
Johnson pointed to Benji, the firm's tokenized money market fund, as evidence of the cost gap. According to the reporting, processing 50,000 transactions through Franklin Templeton's legacy system cost $1.30 per transaction, while the same volume on the Stellar blockchain cost $1.13 per transaction. The figures come from the firm's own statements and have not been independently verified in the source material.
Franklin Templeton's Digital Asset Build-Out
The remarks came alongside a new partnership with MoonPay, which will let institutional investors move between stablecoins and the tokenized fund through an on-chain workflow. Franklin Templeton began building a dedicated digital assets team in 2018. Benji launched in 2021 as what the firm describes as the first U.S.-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain as its official system of record for transactions and share ownership. The fund invests mainly in U.S. Treasuries.
The firm's crypto products include the Franklin Bitcoin ETF (ticker EZBC), a passive fund holding only bitcoin and cash, and a separately managed account allocating dynamically between bitcoin and ether.
The 250 Digital Acquisition
In April 2026, Franklin Templeton announced plans to acquire 250 Digital, a spinoff from crypto venture firm CoinFund, to form a new division called Franklin Crypto. The source material states that BENJI tokens were used as part of the acquisition payment, which it describes as one of the first M&A transactions structured on-chain. The firm's digital assets division is reported to manage approximately $1.8 billion in assets.
Why It Matters
For Traders
Franklin Templeton's on-chain acquisition payment in BENJI tokens and its MoonPay stablecoin workflow could draw institutional flows, though no immediate price effect is reported.
For Investors
A major legacy asset manager publicly framing fee erosion as the core barrier to blockchain adoption signals how incumbents may position their tokenization strategies over the coming years.
For Builders
The reported Stellar cost comparison and the BENJI-denominated M&A payment give infrastructure teams a concrete production reference for institutional tokenized fund operations.
This article is for information only and is not financial advice. Read the full disclaimer.
