Franklin Templeton Brings Tokenized U.S. Treasury Fund to Europe

Franklin Templeton, a prominent global asset manager, has announced the launch of its tokenized U.S. Treasury fund in Luxembourg, expanding access to European institutional investors. The Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund is the first Luxembourg-domiciled fund investing in U.S. government securities that is fully tokenized, according to a press release from the asset manager. This means shares in the fund are recorded and transferred on the blockchain, using Franklin Templeton's proprietary blockchain-based transfer agency platform for handling transactions, offering enhanced efficiency, transparency, and security.

The fund is available on the Stellar Lumens network (XLM) for institutional investors in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland, following regulatory approval in October by Luxembourg regulators. The U.S.-registered version of the fund has attracted over $580 million of assets since its 2021 debut and is limited to U.S.-based investors only.

Tokenized U.S. Treasuries have been at the forefront of real-world asset tokenization efforts, growing into a $4 billion asset class this year. Franklin Templeton was the first among traditional financial institutions to release such a product and is the third largest tokenized treasury fund by assets under management behind Hashnote's USYC and BUIDL, issued by BlackRock and Securitize.