AUSTIN, TX — Franklin Templeton, the $1.6 trillion asset supervisor based mostly in Silicon Valley, has been on the forefront of conventional finance heavyweights pushing into the digital asset house.
“We now have checked out blockchain tech [and found] that is going to be transformational and we higher be sure we perceive it,” Jenny Johnson, president and CEO of Franklin Templeton, stated throughout a Thursday panel dialogue at Consensus 2024 in Austin.
That is why the corporate is operating about 30 validator nodes on 12 completely different blockchains, for instance, on Ethereum {{ETH}}, Cardano {{ADA}}, Stellar {{XLM}} and Provenance, Johnson stated on the panel. That is greater than what the asset supervisor’s web site exhibits, which mentions six networks together with the identical 4 blockchains plus Polkadot {{DOT}} and Solana {{SOL}}.
RWA tokenization
A key attract of blockchain expertise, she defined, is the effectivity to document and reconcile transactions and its potential for value financial savings.
“Franklin [Templeton] immediately has an enormous variety of folks, a pair hundred, who simply reconcile [data] between programs, then now we have to reconcile with our counterparty and one other agency,” Johnson stated.
Blockchains supply a single “supply of reality” and document timing of transactions higher than standard processes, she stated, which may assist reduce prices and lower administrative workload.
“We’re in a enterprise the place we’re continually being pressured to drive down the prices of the supply of what we do,” she added.
One instance benefitting from blockchain is tokenization, making real-world belongings akin to funds and bonds out there on digital asset rails. Franklin Templeton was a pioneer, she stated, launching the primary cash market fund out there on-chain utilizing the Stellar community in 2021, years earlier than rivals like BlackRock entered the house.
Bitcoin ETFs
Franklin Templeton was one of many 11 issuers permitted to record spot-based bitcoin exchange-traded funds within the U.S. in January, and can be amongst these ready for approval to launch an analogous car for the second-largest cryptocurrency ether.
Johnson stated that many individuals are drawn to bitcoin {{BTC}} as an asset exterior of the banking system that is immune to authorities seizure, however ETFs supply a well-understood car to get publicity.
“For me, it is a car of selection,” Johnson stated. “An ETF is a regulated entity, which makes lots of people extra snug who would not have transacted on this house in any other case.”