Franklin Templeton has launched a tokenized US greenback money market fund for skilled buyers in Hong Kong, increasing its crypto choices in Asia.
In accordance to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Wednesday, the Franklin OnChain U.S. Authorities Money Fund is the primary end-to-end tokenized construction by an asset supervisor to combine issuance, distribution and servicing straight onchain in Hong Kong.
The tokenized fund might be initially out there solely to institutional {and professional} buyers. It’s registered in Luxembourg beneath a regulated framework that permits funding funds to be offered throughout the European Union.
The fund makes use of Franklin Templeton’s proprietary blockchain recordkeeping system, whereas looking for to present revenue and protect capital by means of investments in short-term US authorities treasurys.
Whereas entry stays restricted at launch, Tariq Ahmad, Franklin Templeton’s head of Asia-Pacific, mentioned it plans to supply “a retail-approved tokenized fund, topic to SFC approval.”
Brian Chen, head of OSL Wealth Administration, which is supporting the launch as a regulated distribution companion, mentioned “Hong Kong is turning into an institutionally trusted hub for digital property.”
The transfer from Franklin Templeton, one of many world’s largest asset managers, follows China Asset Administration (Hong Kong)’s launch of its first tokenized product, the ChinaAMC HKD Digital Money Market Fund, introduced in February.
Hong Kong advances asset tokenization
Not like mainland China, Hong Kong operates beneath an outlined regulatory framework for digital property. This has enabled town to emerge as a regional middle for crypto innovation and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization initiatives.
In August, the Hong Kong Financial Authority unveiled the Challenge Ensemble sandbox to discover how real-world property could be tokenized and settled between banks by means of a wholesale central financial institution digital foreign money.
The mission builds on earlier initiatives, together with the event of wCBDC, a wholesale central financial institution digital foreign money launched in March 2024 to help asset tokenization.
In September, UBS, Chainlink and DigiFT launched a pilot in Hong Kong to check automated fund tokenization utilizing blockchain infrastructure for onchain settlement and lifecycle administration.
In November, the HKMA outlined its RWA tokenization plans beneath its five-year Fintech 2030 technique, which incorporates plans to concern tokenized authorities bonds and discover tokenized Change Fund papers alongside the rollout of its e-HKD stablecoin.
