Franklin Templeton Launches Franklin Crypto Division After Closing 250 Digital Deal

Wall Street's biggest names move deeper into crypto

Franklin Templeton, the $1.78 trillion asset manager, closed its acquisition of cryptocurrency investment firm 250 Digital on June 22 and formally launched a dedicated division called Franklin Crypto.coindesk +1 The deal, first announced in April, absorbs the entire 250 Digital investment team along with all liquid cryptocurrency strategies previously run under CoinFund Management.coindesk Financial terms were not disclosed.coindesk

Christopher Perkins, a co-founder of 250 Digital and former managing partner at CoinFund, will serve as head of Franklin Crypto. Seth Ginns, 250 Digital's chief investment officer, carries that title into the new division, with Franklin Templeton Digital Assets veteran Tony Pecore rounding out the leadership team.coindesk +1 The unit reports to Sandy Kaul, the firm's head of innovation.thedefiant

An institutional mandate across active digital asset strategies

Franklin Crypto's stated mandate is to deliver actively managed digital asset products to pensions, sovereign wealth funds, and other large institutional allocators.thedefiant That positions it as a distinct layer alongside the firm's existing digital-asset infrastructure: the BENJI on-chain money-market fund, which has grown to approximately $2.51 billion in tokenized assets, and two Bitcoin DRIP ETFs filed with the SEC last week that would reinvest U.S. stock dividends into bitcoin exposure.thedefiant +1

One notable structural detail involves how part of the deal was settled. Franklin Templeton used BENJI tokens — on-chain representations of its Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund — as a component of the acquisition consideration, making it one of the first major M&A transactions in financial services to be partly settled through tokenized fund shares.bitcoinmagazine That decision signals the firm views its tokenization stack as a live commercial tool rather than an experiment.

A signal to the broader asset management industry

CEO Jenny Johnson said the deal positions Franklin Templeton among a small group of global asset managers with a dedicated institutional-grade crypto investment management team.thedefiant The firm already manages roughly $1.8 billion through Franklin Templeton Digital Assets, with BENJI's on-chain value up approximately 100% year-to-date.thedefiant

The launch gives the firm three distinct institutional crypto product lines: BENJI as the tokenized-treasury and on-chain cash layer, the proposed DRIP ETFs as passive allocation wrappers for equity portfolios, and Franklin Crypto as the active-strategy arm for direct institutional mandates.thedefiant Combined with other traditional-finance forays into digital assets, the move underscores that major asset managers are no longer treating crypto as a peripheral allocation but as a permanent structural component of institutional portfolios.bitcoinmagazine +1