Franklin Templeton is expanding its digital assets strategy through a new partnership with MoonPay that will allow institutional investors to move from stablecoins to the asset manager’s tokenized money market fund via an on-chain workflow.
The integration connects Franklin Templeton’s Benji technology platform to MoonPay Trade’s infrastructure, creating a pathway for eligible institutions to exchange supported stablecoins for exposure to the company’s tokenized money market fund and vice-versa without leaving blockchain networks.
This partnership comes as Franklin Templeton deepens its business in the digital assets space. In April, the $1.74 trillion asset manager announced plans to launch Franklin Crypto, a dedicated cryptocurrency division anchored by the acquisition of crypto investment firm 250 Digital. The new unit will focus on active crypto investment strategies, while Franklin Templeton continues to create tokenized versions of traditional financial products.
Sandy Kaul, head of innovation and digital assets at Franklin Templeton, said the company sees 2026 as “the year of the universal liquidity layer,” where stablecoins, tokenized funds and other forms of digital currency become interoperable and can be used in trading, lending and collateral applications.
Kaul said one of the most compelling use cases for institutions is the ability to move stablecoin balances into tokenized money market funds and earn yield around the clock.
“We trade 24/7 in the crypto markets,” she said in an interview with CoinDesk. Unlike traditional money market funds, which typically require investors to hold positions until the end of a trading day to receive interest, tokenized funds can distribute yield based on the precise period of time the investor holds the asset, she said.
According to Kaul, institutional demand for this feature is strong.
“We’ve had huge demand for this,” she said, referring to the ability to switch between stablecoins and tokenized money market funds at any time while maintaining exposure to yield-generating assets.
The partnership also reflects MoonPay’s expansion beyond crypto trading and payments into real-world tokenized assets, an area that is seeing growing interest from traditional financial institutions looking to bring regulated investment products online.
