Franklin Templeton Brings Tokenized U.S. Government Fund to Asia Through HashKey

Franklin Templeton is expanding its tokenized investment business in Asia through a new partnership with Hong Kong-based HashKey Exchange, bringing one of the asset manager’s blockchain-based money market products directly to eligible digital asset investors.

HashKey has added the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Liquidity Fund, known as grBENJI, to its Earn platform.

The product gives professional investors exposure to a fund that primarily holds U.S. government money market instruments and U.S. dollar cash assets while recording fund ownership through blockchain infrastructure.

The launch adds another institutional product to Asia’s rapidly developing real-world asset market and highlights how traditional asset managers are increasingly using regulated crypto platforms as distribution channels.

Franklin Templeton Expands Its Tokenized Fund Strategy

Franklin Templeton has been one of the most active major asset managers in tokenized funds.

Rather than creating an entirely new crypto-native asset class, the company has focused on placing familiar financial products such as money market funds onto blockchain infrastructure.

grBENJI follows that strategy.

The underlying portfolio remains focused on relatively conventional short-term U.S. government and dollar-denominated assets. What changes is the infrastructure used to represent and manage investor ownership.

Tokenization allows fund shares and transaction records to be represented on-chain, potentially creating faster settlement, greater programmability and easier integration with digital asset platforms.

For investors already operating within crypto markets, that can create a bridge between blockchain-based capital and traditional yield-bearing assets.

The partnership with HashKey expands that bridge further into Asia.

What Is grBENJI?

The Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Liquidity Fund is designed to invest primarily in U.S. government money market instruments and cash denominated in U.S. dollars.

Its tokenized structure allows ownership interests to be recorded through blockchain technology.

That makes the fund fundamentally different from a stablecoin.

A dollar stablecoin is generally designed to maintain a fixed value against the U.S. dollar and function as a transferable digital payment instrument.

A tokenized money market fund instead represents an investment in an underlying portfolio.

Investors may receive returns linked to the income produced by assets such as short-term government securities.

That distinction has become increasingly important as the tokenized asset market expands.

Stablecoins remain the dominant form of tokenized cash, but asset managers are building a parallel market for tokenized Treasury products, money market funds, bonds and other securities.

HashKey Becomes a New Distribution Channel

HashKey Exchange will offer grBENJI through its Earn channel.

In Hong Kong, access is restricted to eligible professional investors rather than the general retail market.

That institutional focus reflects the current direction of regulated tokenization in the region.

Rather than immediately targeting millions of retail crypto users, companies are first building infrastructure for investors that already operate across traditional finance and digital assets.

HashKey is particularly well positioned for that role because its broader platform spans several important financial and crypto jurisdictions.

Franklin Templeton has indicated that the partnership could eventually expand beyond tokenized money market funds into additional tokenized investment products.

That means the current launch may be less significant as a single fund listing than as the beginning of a wider distribution relationship.

Why Asia Matters for Tokenized Assets

Asia has emerged as one of the most important testing grounds for institutional tokenization.

Hong Kong has spent several years building regulatory infrastructure around virtual assets, stablecoins and tokenized securities.

Singapore has taken a similarly active approach through institutional blockchain initiatives and tokenization pilots.

Meanwhile, major financial institutions across the region are experimenting with blockchain-based settlement, tokenized deposits and real-world assets.

For global asset managers, this creates a market where crypto infrastructure and traditional finance are increasingly being developed side by side.

Franklin Templeton already has experience in Hong Kong.

The firm introduced a tokenized money market product there in 2025 as financial authorities accelerated efforts to bring blockchain-based products into regulated markets.

The HashKey partnership gives Franklin Templeton another route to reach investors who already hold or manage digital assets.

Tokenized Treasuries Continue to Grow

U.S. government securities have become one of the strongest categories in the real-world asset tokenization market.

The logic is relatively straightforward.

Crypto markets hold large amounts of capital in stablecoins and other digital assets, but investors often want access to yield without moving completely back into traditional banking infrastructure.

Tokenized Treasury products attempt to solve that problem.

They combine exposure to short-term government securities with digital infrastructure that can interact more easily with crypto platforms, institutional custody systems and blockchain-based financial applications.

As a result, tokenized U.S. government debt has become a major component of the broader RWA market.

Asset managers that once competed primarily through conventional brokerage and banking channels are now also competing for distribution inside digital asset ecosystems.

Traditional Asset Managers Are Moving On-Chain

Franklin Templeton is not alone.

Tokenization has attracted some of the largest financial institutions in the world as firms explore whether blockchain infrastructure can reduce settlement times, automate parts of asset servicing and create new distribution channels.

The key shift is that tokenization is increasingly moving beyond pilot projects.

The industry is now building products that investors can actually access through regulated platforms.

That transition matters.

A blockchain-based security has limited value if it exists only inside an isolated experiment. Its usefulness increases considerably when exchanges, custodians, banks and asset managers can connect to the same infrastructure.

HashKey distributing a Franklin Templeton fund represents exactly that type of integration.

One side brings a regulated digital asset platform and crypto-native clients.

The other brings a globally recognised asset manager and a conventional financial product.

A Bridge Between Crypto Liquidity and Traditional Yield

The partnership also illustrates a broader change in what investors expect from digital asset platforms.

Crypto exchanges historically focused on trading cryptocurrencies.

Increasingly, however, platforms are competing to become broader financial hubs.

That can include stablecoins, staking, structured products, tokenized securities and yield-bearing real-world assets.

For professional investors, tokenized money market funds may be especially attractive because they can provide a relatively familiar source of yield while keeping capital closer to digital asset infrastructure.

This could become increasingly relevant if institutional crypto participation continues to rise.

Funds, trading firms and corporate treasuries may not want their capital divided between completely separate blockchain and banking environments.

Tokenized traditional assets can reduce that divide.

What Comes Next?

Franklin Templeton has already suggested that its relationship with HashKey may extend beyond money market funds.

Future products could potentially include other tokenized securities distributed across HashKey’s international network.

That is the larger story behind the grBENJI launch.

The tokenized asset market is gradually shifting from proving that securities can exist on a blockchain to building the infrastructure required to distribute them at scale.

Franklin Templeton provides the investment product.

HashKey provides regulated digital asset distribution.

Together, they offer a model that other asset managers and exchanges are likely to study closely.

The next phase of real-world asset tokenization may therefore be less about launching another blockchain-based Treasury product and more about deciding where those products are sold, who can access them and how seamlessly they connect with the rest of the financial system.