Franklin Templeton, one of the world's largest asset managers, is deepening its push into tokenized assets in Asia through a partnership with Hong Kong crypto exchange HashKey, making its flagship tokenized money market fund, the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Liquidity Fund (grBENJI), available to digital asset investors across the region, the firms announced.

The fund invests primarily in US government money market instruments and US dollar cash assets through blockchain-enabled infrastructure. When Franklin Templeton rolled out the fund in 2021, it became one of the first US-registered funds to record share ownership and process transactions on a public blockchain, making the firm an early mover on tokenization among traditional asset managers.

Access Limited to Professional Investors

The offering is available exclusively to professional investors and is not open to Hong Kong's general retail public. Under the city's Securities and Futures Ordinance, professional investors generally include institutions and individuals with investment portfolios of at least HK$8 million, roughly US$1 million. HashKey is among the virtual asset trading platforms licensed by Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission, and that licensed status anchors the fund's distribution through regulated channels.

Chetan Karkhanis, Franklin Templeton's SVP of digital assets client engagement, said the firm intends to expand the partnership beyond money market products into other tokenized offerings, leveraging HashKey's presence across Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Dubai, and Bermuda.

The launch marks Franklin Templeton's second tokenized fund offering in Hong Kong. The asset manager introduced its first tokenized fund there in November 2025 under the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's Fintech 2030 initiative, part of the city's broader financial-infrastructure modernization agenda, which also includes the HKMA's Project Ensemble work on tokenizing assets and settlement.

Tokenized Treasuries Gain Ground

The launch comes as investors and financial institutions explore blockchain-based versions of traditional assets, with US government debt emerging as one of the largest segments of the tokenized-asset market. The segment has drawn entries from other large traditional managers, including BlackRock, whose USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) launched in March 2024 and quickly became one of the largest tokenized Treasury products.

The total value of real-world assets tracked by RWA.xyz reached $38.18 billion as of August 2026, up 85% from $20.6 billion a year earlier. Tokenized US Treasury debt made up $15.6 billion of the total, more than doubling from $6.4 billion a year earlier, an increase of 144%.

Why This Matters

For Franklin Templeton, the HashKey partnership extends a tokenization strategy that has moved from early experiments toward products distributed through regulated digital-asset infrastructure, pairing a major name in traditional fund management with Hong Kong's effort to establish itself as a licensed digital-asset hub since opening its crypto trading regime in 2023.

The professional-investor restriction also highlights the regulatory limits that continue to shape the rollout of tokenized financial products in Asian markets.

Further expansion will depend not only on investor demand but also on how regulators and financial institutions treat blockchain-based representations of traditional securities.