Illustrative image: The partnership between Binance and Franklin Templeton goes beyond efficiency. It’s about building a financial system where tokenised assets are the default collateral, portfolios rebalance automatically, and settlements happen at the speed of code. (Photos: CFOTO / NurPhoto via AFP | Jaque Silva / NurPhoto via AFP) 
In the annals of unlikely corporate couplings, a strategic alliance between Binance and Franklin Templeton ranks somewhere between a tech start-up marrying a pension fund and a cryptocurrency exchange getting engaged to… well, exactly that.
But make no mistake, this isn’t your garden-variety corporate handshake. As Catherine Chen, head of VIP and institutional at Binance, puts it: “Our strategic collaboration with Franklin Templeton to develop new products and initiatives furthers our commitment to bridge crypto with traditional capital markets and open up greater possibilities.”
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Dearly beloved, we are witnessing the migration of traditional, regulated, yield-bearing financial instruments onto public blockchains for mass distribution. Your money market fund is about to get a blockchain makeover.
Beyond the ETF playbook
The crypto-TradFi romance has been brewing for years, with exchange-traded funds (ETFs) serving as the acceptable face of digital assets for institutional investors. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (Ibit) quickly amassed billions, proving there was pent-up demand for a simple, regulated on-ramp to crypto.
But ETFs are training wheels. They let investors track crypto prices without actually owning the assets. Safe, yes – but hardly revolutionary.
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The Franklin Templeton-Binance alliance is a different kind of marriage. The plan is to combine Franklin’s expertise in tokenising securities with Binance’s enormous trading footprint. It’s not just about exposure; it’s about moving real-world financial products directly onto the blockchain.
“Investors are asking about digital assets to remain ahead of the curve, but they need to be accessible and dependable. By working with Binance, we can deliver breakthrough products that meet the requirements of global capital markets and co-create the portfolios of the future,” said Roger Bayston, EVP and head of digital assets at Franklin Templeton. “Our goal is to take tokenisation from concept to practice for clients to achieve efficiencies in settlement, collateral management and portfolio construction at scale.”
We want a prenup
Franklin brings its proprietary Benji platform and tokenised US Government Money Fund (FOBXX) – the first US-registered mutual fund represented on a public blockchain. Each share becomes a Benji token, turning a staid money market fund into a blockchain-native instrument.
Binance, for its part, provides the catering: a global network of more than 280 million users in 100-plus countries, paired with the technological agility to distribute tokenised products at scale.
However, Binance is facing ongoing legal scrutiny in multiple jurisdictions and has not yet received full licensing in many key markets.
For now, the collaboration doesn’t create new derivatives. But it lays the groundwork for an on-chain economy where tokenised real estate yields, blockchain money market funds and digital bonds all become underlying assets for futures, options and swaps. Every new tokenised instrument could spin off an ecosystem of tradeable risk.
Sandy Kaul, EVP and head of innovation at Franklin Templeton, says the asset manager does not see blockchain as a threat to legacy systems, but as an opportunity to reimagine them. “By working with Binance, we can harness tokenisation to bring institutional-grade solutions like our Benji technology platform to a wider set of investors and help bridge the worlds of traditional and decentralised finance.”
Meet the in-laws
Global frameworks for tokenised securities are still patchy, with major questions around investor protection, anti-money laundering and the legal status of tokens. Until those are settled, Franklin and Binance are effectively planning the honeymoon while lawyers argue over the prenup.
Franklin, under US scrutiny, will insist on doing things by the book. Binance, with its looser history, will have to show it can adapt. The success of this marriage may depend on whether these compliance cultures can coexist.
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You see, in tokenised finance there’s something called a “strategic trilemma”: distribution, compliance and decentralisation. Asset managers can usually achieve two, but rarely all three.
Franklin Templeton’s gamble is to go broad by leveraging Binance’s retail reach. BlackRock, by contrast, chose Securitize as its partner, prioritising iron-clad compliance for institutions. Both strategies have merit, but they represent fundamentally different visions for tokenised finance.
Carried over the threshold
Even the best marriages need a solid home. Here, the foundation is blockchain infrastructure. But too many blockchains risk fragmenting liquidity, while demands for secure custody, resilient networks and sophisticated cybersecurity grow heavier by the day.
If done right, the rewards are significant: trades that settle in minutes, fractional ownership of previously inaccessible assets and markets that never close. For retail investors, it opens doors to products once reserved for the elite. For institutions, it creates 24/7 global capital markets.
The dream goes beyond efficiency. It’s about building a financial system where tokenised assets are the default collateral, portfolios rebalance automatically, and settlements happen at the speed of code.
But the road to that happily-ever-after runs through regulatory clarity. Without it, the vision of an on-chain economy risks becoming a short-lived romance rather than a generational partnership.
Binance’s role in this partnership won’t escape scrutiny. The exchange has faced regulatory action and licensing delays in several jurisdictions, while Franklin Templeton operates under tight US oversight. Reconciling these contrasting compliance cultures will be critical to gaining regulatory approval — and investor trust. DM