Franklin Templeton, a global investment management firm, has made an exciting announcement regarding its Benji Investments platform. Users of the platform can now convert USDC stablecoin into U.S. dollars to fund their investment in the Franklin Onchain U.S. Government Money Fund. This conversion service is made possible by Zero Hash, a company that supports various digital assets across multiple blockchains.
This new feature introduced by Franklin Templeton allows for a seamless purchase of BENJI tokens and the conversion of U.S. dollar proceeds back to USDC, which is the second largest stablecoin by market cap. It is worth noting that the Franklin Onchain U.S. Government Money Fund, launched in 2021, was the first U.S.-registered mutual fund to utilize a public blockchain for transactions and share ownership recording.
The aim of Franklin Templeton’s initiative is to enhance accessibility for both traditional and blockchain-native investors. There are also potential plans to expand this feature to individual investors on the platform in the future. The Franklin Onchain U.S. Government Money Fund primarily invests in government securities, cash, and fully collateralized repurchase agreements, maintaining a stable $1 share price while offering competitive yield and preserving capital and liquidity.
In April 2024, the fund enabled peer-to-peer transfers for institutional BENJI token holders on the blockchain, further integrating digital assets with traditional finance. In a similar vein, Blackrock launched a fund called BUIDL, which leverages U.S. government bonds.
Blackrock’s tokenized fund, the Blackrock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity (BUIDL) fund, was introduced in collaboration with Coinbase and the tokenization platform Securitize in March 2024. Roger Bayston, Head of Digital Assets at Franklin Templeton, explained that the USDC conversion simplifies access to BENJI and provides investors with a seamless method to access their tokenized money market fund.
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