(Bloomberg) -- Franklin Templeton says his money market fund that records ownership of shares on a blockchain is seeing inflows from cryptocurrency-related entities following the closure of several industry-friendly banks.
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Total assets in the Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX), which launched last year, have risen to around $270 million. The fund uses the Stellar blockchain network to process transactions and record ownership. The fund invests in US government securities, cash and repurchase agreements and does not hold cryptocurrencies.
One of the crypto projects that has poured money into the fund is the Stellar Development Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports the Stellar blockchain. The foundation invested $20 million recently.
โOur money was just sitting in bank accounts and that was not the best place to put value,โ Denelle Dixon, executive director of the Stellar Development Foundation, said in an interview, adding that the organization still has accounts with banks. including the failed Silicon Valley Bank.
The asset manager has seen an "elevated" level of conversations with a variety of cryptocurrency-related participants, including decentralized autonomous organizations, foundations and projects, according to Roger Bayston, head of digital assets at Franklin Templeton.
The fund even has a digital token called BENJI that represents shares of the funds. A portion of the fund is held at one dollar. Currently, the tokens are not transferable between investors in the fund, but executives at the asset manager said bringing utility to the token is on the company's roadmap.
โMoney market funds are used for collateral and off-chain payment purposes,โ said Sandy Kaul, senior vice president at Franklin Templeton. โWe will fully anticipate those types of use cases moving up the chain as regulations become clearer.โ
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