Franklin Templeton has picked a favorite blockchain, and it isn’t the one where its tokenized fund began. The firm holds approximately $1.5 billion in tokenized fund shares on BNB Chain as of mid-October 2026.
That figure represents about 59.8% of Franklin Templeton’s total onchain assets. For a firm spread across ten different networks, that is a lot of eggs in one basket.
The numbers behind the shift
Franklin Templeton’s total onchain footprint sits at around $2.55 billion. Those assets are distributed across ten blockchains, but BNB Chain now carries the majority of the load.
The engine behind all of this is Benji, Franklin Templeton’s proprietary tokenization platform. Benji handles the issuance of tokenized fund shares and records ownership onchain. Instead of a back-office database tracking who owns what, a public ledger does the job.
Total assets on the Benji platform reached somewhere between $2.5 billion and $2.6 billion by October 2026. The BENJI token itself accounts for approximately $760 million of that.
The growth curve on BNB Chain was steep. Franklin Templeton’s holdings there surged by over 1,200% in a single month in early 2026.
How a money fund ended up on Binance’s chain
The flagship product here is the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund, which trades under the ticker FOBXX. Its shares are represented by the BENJI token.
FOBXX launched on Stellar in April 2021 and became the first US-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain for transactions and ownership records.
The BNB Chain chapter opened in September 2025, when Benji expanded to the network through a partnership with Binance. Roughly a year later, the newcomer has overtaken the original home.
In August 2026, the SEC issued a no-action letter that allows Franklin Templeton to use BENJI for cash management and collateral purposes.
Roger Bayston, head of digital assets at Franklin Templeton, has framed the effort around making funds easier for investors to access. He has also stressed that the firm wants to expand what tokenization can do while keeping security and compliance at the center.
What this means for tokenization and the chains competing for it
Franklin Templeton manages assets valued at as much as $1.83 trillion, so its choices carry weight well beyond its own balance sheet. BNB Chain now hosts nearly 60% of the firm’s onchain assets.
The SEC letter could be the bigger long-term story. Using BENJI for cash management and collateral turns a tokenized fund share from a curiosity into a working financial tool. If a token representing a government money fund can be posted as collateral, it starts competing with cash and stablecoins for that role, while potentially earning yield along the way.
The key metrics to track from here are straightforward. Watch whether BNB Chain’s share of Franklin Templeton’s onchain assets keeps climbing past 59.8%, and whether the Benji platform pushes beyond its current $2.5 billion to $2.6 billion range.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Kaye Quema. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.