Franklin Templeton Expands Tokenized Treasury Fund to Solana Blockchain

Franklin Templeton, a global investment management firm with approximately $1.5 trillion in assets under management, has expanded its tokenized treasury fund to the Solana blockchain. This move comes after the firm registered the Franklin Solana Trust, signaling its intention to launch a Solana ETF in the United States.

The fund, known as the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX), is now available on eight blockchain platforms, including Stellar, Aptos, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Polygon, Base, Ethereum, and now Solana. The firm chose Solana for its speed, security, and censorship-resistant nature, which encourages global adoption through its open infrastructure.

FOBXX was initially launched on Stellar in 2021 and has since grown to become one of the world's leading money-market funds. As of February 11, the fund had around $495 million in market capitalization, ranking second only to USYC, the on-chain representation of Hashnote International Short Duration Yield Fund Ltd. (SDYF), which has a market capitalization exceeding $1 billion, according to Dune Analytics.

BlackRock's USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), which challenged FOBXX following its launch last year, had approximately $394 million in market capitalization as of Tuesday. BUIDL previously surpassed FOBXX to lead the tokenized treasury fund market.

The Wall Street giant has shown ongoing interest in Solana's ecosystem. Following the SEC approval of US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs, including Franklin's EZBC, the firm expressed interest in the vision of Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana's co-founder. Franklin also highlighted key developments in the Solana ecosystem in Q4 2023, such as advancements in DePIN, DeFi, the meme coin market, NFT innovation, and the launch of the Firedancer scaling solution.

The asset manager established the Franklin Solana Trust in Delaware this week, indicating plans to launch a Solana ETF in the US. The trust's registration by CSC Delaware Trust Company signals Franklin's intention to file necessary forms with the SEC to officially introduce the ETF, which aims to track the price movement of SOL, the fifth-largest crypto by market capitalization.