Traditional finance giant Franklin Templeton, which boasts an eye-popping $1.78 trillion in assets under management (AUM), has closed its acquisition of 250 Digital, according to a Monday announcement.
After wrapping up the deal, the New York-based investment firm has now announced the launch of Franklin Crypto, which is a new asset division aimed at sovereign wealth funds, pensions, and so on.
The firm is no longer just toying with crypto, given that it is now running active cryptocurrency strategies with a tech stack that heavily features the XRP Ledger (XRP), Stellar (XLM), Polygon (MATIC), and Aptos (APT).
A major acquisition
Franklin Templeton first agreed to buy 250 Digital back in April. The newly acquired crypto investment firm in question was originally spun out of CoinFund in January.
Leadership: The new Franklin Crypto division is spearheaded by crypto industry veteran Christopher Perkins as Head of Franklin Crypto, alongside Chief Investment Officer Seth Ginns.
The duo will work closely with Tony Pecore from Franklin Templeton Digital Assets.
Franklin Templeton is committing its own capital into the liquid cryptocurrency strategies that were previously managed by CoinFund.
Notably, Franklin Templeton used BENJI tokens (the on-chain version of its Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund) to partially fund the acquisition.
Other recent crypto developments
Franklin Templeton has been a major player within the crypto sector for years.
Earlier this week, the asset manager filed proposals for two novel Bitcoin-linked exchange-traded funds (ETFs): the Franklin US Equity Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF and the Franklin US Innovation Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF.
The buyers of this ETF will be exposed to an allocation of 95% U.S. equities and 5% Bitcoin.
The fund also made a splash with the launch of the first XRP ETF last year. During the trading week of June 14 to June 18, Franklin Templeton's spot XRP ETF (ticker: XRPZ) recorded the highest net inflow in its category, pulling in $6.7 million over the five-day period.
