Franklin Templeton Brings $1.7T Clout to 24/7 On-Chain Trading
Global asset manager Franklin Templeton, which oversees $1.7 trillion in assets, has partnered with real-world asset (RWA) specialist Ondo Finance to launch tokenized versions of five of its ETFs. The products, which include a high-yield corporate ETF and a responsibly sourced gold ETF, will be accessible for trading 24/7 directly from crypto wallets. The initiative leverages Ondo's Global Markets platform, which has already attracted over $620 million in total value locked (TVL) since launching last fall.
This structure allows investors in Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Latin America to gain exposure to U.S.-based funds without needing a traditional brokerage account. While currently unavailable to U.S. users, the move represents a significant step by a legacy financial institution to use blockchain as a primary distribution channel, collapsing settlement times from days to minutes and providing constant liquidity.
Institutional Tokenization Accelerates as On-Chain Volume Hits $62T
Franklin Templeton's move is not an isolated experiment but part of a calculated strategy building on years of work. The firm launched its Franklin On-Chain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX) in 2021, which has since grown to over $557 million in assets and expanded across seven different blockchains. This latest partnership comes as competitors make similar advances, including the New York Stock Exchange's collaboration with the BlackRock-backed Securitize and Nasdaq's SEC-approved pilot for tokenized securities.
A key driver for this institutional push is the maturing regulatory landscape and the proven scale of on-chain infrastructure. With stablecoin transaction volumes reaching an estimated $62 trillion in 2025, major financial players recognize that blockchain rails are capable of handling significant financial activity. This growing clarity and proven infrastructure are paving the way for Wall Street to integrate more deeply with Web3 ecosystems.
On-Chain Trading Reshapes Market Structure and Risk
The shift to 24/7 on-chain trading represents a fundamental change in market structure. For institutions, the ability to exit a position at any time, rather than waiting for markets to open, fundamentally alters liquidity risk calculations. It collapses the layers of intermediaries and settlement windows that define traditional finance into a near real-time system.
However, this efficiency introduces new considerations. While tokenization provides greater access, it does not remove the underlying volatility of the assets. Furthermore, the increasing use of tokenized traditional assets as collateral on crypto platforms creates new connections between regulated and decentralized financial systems. These interdependencies could become sources of systemic risk and contagion during periods of market stress, a dynamic the industry is watching closely as the walls between TradFi and DeFi continue to thin.
