Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson criticized rival tokenized funds at TOKEN2049 Singapore, arguing that many competitors offer merely digital versions of traditional products without leveraging blockchain's core advantages.
Johnson drew a distinction between Franklin Templeton's approach and what she characterized as "digital twin" funds elsewhere in the market. While competing products wrap existing systems in tokens, BENJI's records are natively based on public blockchains, making the chain the source of truth rather than a secondary reflection.
Practical Design Benefits
Johnson highlighted two specific advantages of native blockchain architecture. First, BENJI supports per-second yield accrual, enabling real-time yield calculation. Second, the design delivers substantial cost savings: BENJI transactions cost $1.13 compared with approximately $150 per transaction under traditional methods.
Market Performance and Expansion
Franklin Templeton launched BENJI in 2021 as the first US-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain for ownership records. The product has since expanded across multiple chains and integrated into institutional collateral arrangements through partnerships with crypto platforms including Bybit and Binance.
Franklin Templeton's tokenized money funds, including BENJI, have reached an estimated $2.5 billion in total value. BENJI's own assets ranged from hundreds of millions to over $800 million during 2026.
In April 2026, Franklin Templeton acquired 250 Digital, a crypto investment team, from CoinFund, with part of the payment made in BENJI tokens.
