Franklin Templeton Says 'BTD' (Buy the Dip) and Means It

Franklin Templeton is going all-in on crypto, acquiring 250 Digital — a firm spun off from venture capital outfit CoinFund earlier this year — to launch a standalone cryptocurrency division. The $1.7 trillion asset manager is making its boldest digital-asset move yet, with its sights set on pension and sovereign wealth funds. Because nothing says "we believe in this sector" quite like betting big while everyone's else is crying into their Chartix charts.

The new 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. Three former CoinFund folks walking into a $1.7 trillion firm and walking out with their own division? That's not a hiring, that's a hostile takeover in slow motion.

Franklin has been in the crypto space 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 saying "cool, we dipped our toes in the pool, now we're doing a cannonball."

The timing is worth noting. 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. BTD season isn't just for degens on Twitter anymore — apparently it's also for pension fund managers in suits.

Perhaps the most unusual aspect of this deal: 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 is expected to close by mid-2026. No financial terms were released. That's right, corporate M&A just got rekt — we're settling acquisitions with stablecoins now. Welcome to the future, where even billion-dollar deals happen on-chain while your uncle still thinks Bitcoin is a scam.