Franklin Templeton — the asset manager overseeing roughly $1.78 trillion — has closed its acquisition of crypto investment firm 250 Digital and spun up a dedicated crypto unit called Franklin Crypto.
The new division absorbs 250 Digital’s team and strategies, and will be run by former 250 Digital execs Christopher Perkins and Seth Ginns alongside Franklin Templeton’s Tony Pecore. The pitch to institutional investors: actively managed crypto strategies backed by a global distribution network. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
This isn’t Franklin Templeton’s first move into digital assets. Back in February, the company partnered with Binance to let institutions use tokenized money market fund shares as collateral for crypto trading. A month later, they teamed up with Ondo Finance to offer tokenized ETFs on-chain. And just last week, they proposed two ETFs that would funnel stock dividends into Bitcoin-linked investments.
The timing makes sense. Franklin Templeton’s tokenized assets have more than tripled in the past year — from about $768 million to over $2.5 billion, according to RWA.xyz. The broader tokenized asset market has exploded too, climbing from $11.8 billion to $32.2 billion in the same period.
Whether Franklin Crypto gains real traction with institutional money remains to be seen. But the message from one of the world’s largest asset managers is clear: crypto isn’t a side project anymore.
