Not Airdrops, Just Acquisitions: Franklin Templeton Buys Its Way Deeper Into Crypto

Franklin Templeton is acquiring 250 Digital, a spinoff from crypto investment firm CoinFund, to expand its crypto offerings, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. Because nothing says "believing in the future of finance" quite like writing a check instead of launching a token.

The new entity is led by Seth Ginns and Chris Perkins, who previously served as CoinFund's managing partner and president and managing partner and head of liquid investments, respectively. 250 Digital was formally established in January when CoinFund announced the spinoff, placing Perkins and Ginns at the helm. Two veterans jumping ship to a $1.5 trillion asset manager? That's not a career move, that's a golden parachute with a view.

Both executives spent years at CoinFund building relationships across decentralized finance protocols, layer-one blockchain projects, and early-stage token networks. For over a decade, CoinFund has supported founders creating blockchain infrastructure and innovative products. Basically, they were collecting IOUs from every degen builder worth knowing, and now Franklin Templeton is cashing them all in at once.

The firm's portfolio includes standout names such as Ondo Finance, Ether.fi, Flare, Flying Tulip, and World, among others. Some of these you'll recognize from your Twitter feed, others from your trading history, and at least one from that one time you got rekt trying to figure out what it did.

Franklin Templeton has been building out its crypto presence since forming its digital assets team in 2018. In 2024, the firm launched the Franklin Bitcoin ETF and Franklin Ethereum ETF, giving investors exposure to the largest crypto assets at competitive fees. That's right, they waited until ETFs were basically a sure thing before going