HashKey Exchange has begun distributing Franklin Templeton's tokenized money market fund, grBENJI, through its Earn channel, providing platform clients with access to a blockchain-wrapped pool of U.S. government debt.
The Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Liquidity Fund invests primarily in U.S. government money market instruments and dollar cash assets. Franklin Templeton, which manages $1.8 trillion in assets, has operated a tokenized version of the fund since 2021 as the first U.S.-registered mutual fund to utilize a public blockchain for recording share ownership. The product is strictly limited to professional investors and is not offered to the public in Hong Kong.
Returns for the product track short-term Treasury yields. RWA.xyz lists the BENJI token yielding approximately 3.6% over seven and 30 days at a net asset value of $1.00, with over 1,100 holders.
Haiyang Ru, chief executive of HashKey Exchange BG, stated that the listing responds to institutional demand for compliant real-world asset yield. Meanwhile, Chetan Karkhanis, Franklin Templeton's senior vice president for digital assets client engagement, expressed intentions to expand into other tokenized products over time utilizing HashKey's platform across Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Dubai, and Bermuda.
Franklin Templeton has pursued several strategic collaborations and distribution efforts. In May, the firm partnered with Kraken parent Payward regarding tokenized equities, custody, and yield products, with plans to integrate BENJI into Kraken as collateral and a cash management tool. The firm has also expanded the token to BNB Chain following an agreement with Binance, and established partnerships with DigiFT and MoonPay Trade.
