On May 12, 2026, Payward Inc., the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, and global asset management giant Franklin Templeton announced a strategic partnership to develop tokenized investment products and expand onchain financial infrastructure for both institutional and retail clients.
Core of the Partnership: Tokenized Active Management Funds
The collaboration connects Franklin Templeton's approximately $1.74 trillion in assets under management (AUM) with Payward's xStocks framework, which has processed over $30 billion in trading volume since its launch in 2025. xStocks offers tokenized 1:1 representations of U.S. stocks and ETFs, enabling extended trading hours and DeFi composability. The core plan is to build actively managed investment products directly on blockchain networks, making professionally managed strategies from a major traditional asset manager programmable and tradable onchain.
Additionally, the two firms will co-design tokenized fixed-income products initially targeting institutional clients and, where regulations permit, Kraken's broader user base. These products emphasize transparency, programmability, and flexibility.
Integration of BENJI Tokens and Institutional Expansion
Kraken will integrate Franklin Templeton's BENJI token suite for institutional use. BENJI tokens represent shares in the Franklin Onchain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX) and related products, usable as collateral or to generate yield in digital markets. Launched in April 2021 as the first U.S.-registered mutual fund to record share ownership on a public blockchain, FOBXX now operates across Stellar, Solana, Base, Polygon, Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, and other networks.
Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, noted that the partnership reflects a fundamental shift in how financial products are structured: "What collaborations like this enable is a new class of products that wouldn’t have been possible just three years ago: assets that carry the credibility of managers with decades of history and the programmability of digital infrastructure." Sandy Kaul, head of digital assets and innovation at Franklin Templeton, stated: "By expanding the utility of BENJI and exploring new tokenized products, our work with Payward reflects the growing need to serve both digitally native and institutional clients with solutions built for how capital is increasingly moving onchain."
Background and Industry Trends
Franklin Templeton has been working on blockchain integration since 2018. In March 2026, it partnered with Ondo Finance to tokenize five of its ETFs for onchain distribution and 24/7 trading. The following month, it launched its Franklin Crypto unit through the acquisition of 250 Digital, a CoinFund spin-off, with part of the transaction settled in BENJI tokens. Payward also announced a partnership with Nasdaq earlier in 2026 to develop specialized token designs for stocks that support automated corporate actions, proxy voting, and dividend payments.
The partnership highlights a broader industry push toward real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. Traditional assets gain blockchain-native benefits including 24/7 accessibility and composability with decentralized finance protocols, while onchain infrastructure gains access to regulated, institutional-grade products. Risks cited in the announcement include regulatory uncertainty, blockchain security vulnerabilities, pricing and settlement accuracy, and operational conditions.
Both firms participate in DTCC's tokenization working groups, positioning them as leading integrators of traditional finance and crypto-native infrastructure as institutional demand for onchain products accelerates.