Franklin Templeton Buys the Dip With Tokens, Creates Full-Stack Crypto Division

Franklin Templeton is launching a standalone cryptocurrency division by acquiring 250 Digital, a firm spun off from venture capital outfit CoinFund earlier this year. The $1.7 trillion asset manager is making its boldest digital-asset move yet, targeting pension and sovereign wealth funds. In what can only be described as either brilliant contrarian timing or a slight death wish, the 80-year-old firm is going all-in on crypto while the market looks like a crime scene.

The unit will operate under the name Franklin Crypto. Christopher Perkins and Seth Ginns, both former CoinFund executives, will run day-to-day operations. Sandy Kaul, who leads innovation at Franklin, will oversee the group. The founding duo brings the kind of institutional credibility that makes VCs feel comfortable losing money on-chain without actually touching a blockchain themselves.

Franklin has been in crypto since 2018 and currently employs more than 50 digital asset specialists. The firm already offers a bitcoin ETF and runs a tokenized money-market fund on Binance. This acquisition shifts its strategy from passive products toward actively managed institutional offerings. They're basically upgrading from crypto tourism to a timeshare in the metaverse.

Timing matters here. Bitcoin has shed roughly 45% since crossing $126,000 last fall. About $2 trillion has evaporated from total crypto market capitalization. Franklin's leadership appears to view the downturn as a window to consolidate talent and build infrastructure cheaply. Nothing says "we believe in this asset class" quite like swooping in while everyone's panic-selling and offering jobs to developers who suddenly have time to answer their phones.

Perhaps the most unusual aspect is the payment structure. Franklin will use BENJI tokens, backed by its blockchain-based government money fund, to cover part of the purchase price. That makes this one of the first corporate acquisitions partially settled on-chain. The deal should close by mid-2026. No financial terms were released. That's right, kids—actual corporate M&A happening with tokens on a blockchain, not because it's efficient, but because someone really wanted to see if it could be done.