Payward, the parent company of Kraken, and Franklin Templeton have announced a strategic collaboration to bring traditional financial products such as tokenized equities and yield products onto blockchain networks. The partnership integrates Franklin Templeton's BENJI tokenized money market funds into Kraken's platform for use as collateral and cash management tools by institutional clients. This move reflects a broader trend of Wall Street merging with digital assets, as Franklin Templeton also recently launched a dedicated crypto division through its acquisition of 250 Digital. The collaboration leverages Payward's xStocks framework, which has processed over $30 billion in volume, to explore actively managed on-chain investments. The firms aim to make these products available to institutional investors and, in some jurisdictions, retail Kraken users.

Key facts

• Payward and Franklin Templeton partner to tokenize traditional financial products on blockchain.
• BENJI tokenized money market funds will be integrated into Kraken as collateral and cash management.
• Franklin Templeton recently launched crypto division via acquisition of 250 Digital.
• Payward's xStocks framework has processed over $30 billion in volume since launch.
• Products may be available to both institutional and retail Kraken users in some jurisdictions.

KeyAudit data perspective