Franklin Templeton is expanding its digital asset strategy through a new partnership with MoonPay that will allow institutional investors to move between stablecoins and the asset manager’s tokenized money market fund via an on-chain workflow.
The integration connects Franklin Templeton’s Benji technology platform with MoonPay Trade’s infrastructure, creating a pathway for eligible institutions to exchange stablecoins backed by exposure to the company’s tokenized money market fund and vice versa without leaving blockchain networks.
The partnership comes as Franklin Templeton dives deeper into digital assets. In April, the $1.74 trillion asset manager announced plans to launch Franklin Crypto, a dedicated cryptocurrency division based on its acquisition of cryptocurrency investment firm 250 Digital. The new unit will focus on active cryptocurrency 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 money become interoperable and can be used in trading, lending and collateral applications.
Kaul said one of the most attractive use cases for institutions is the ability to move stablecoin balances into tokenized money market funds and earn 24-hour returns.
“We trade 24/7 in the crypto markets,” he 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 returns based on the precise period an investor holds the asset, he said.
According to Kaul, institutional demand for that functionality has been strong.
“We had enormous demand for this,” he said, referring to the ability to move between stablecoins and tokenized money market funds at any time while maintaining exposure to yield-producing assets.
The partnership also reflects MoonPay’s expansion beyond cryptocurrency trading and payments into real-world tokenized assets, an area attracting growing interest from traditional financial institutions looking to bring regulated investment products to the chain.
