Case Study: Franklin Templeton launches the first U.S.-registered mutual fund on a public blockchain with Stellar

Franklin Templeton scales BENJI to $654M on Stellar

Franklin Templeton, a major asset manager, faced the challenge of launching a U.S.-registered mutual fund on a public blockchain. They needed to meet strict SEC obligations, including knowing every holder, authorizing every transfer, and having the power to freeze accounts and clawback shares. The Stellar Development Foundation provided the solution with its Stellar protocol, which offers native, protocol-level controls for asset tokenization.

The solution implemented by the Stellar Development Foundation allowed Franklin Templeton to manage the holder list directly on the ledger with built-in authorization and clawback features. This resulted in the successful launch of the BENJI fund, which has grown to over $654 million in AUM on Stellar. The fund boasts a 0.15% management fee, over $211 million in cumulative peer-to-peer transfer volume, and has helped pioneer a tokenized fund category now worth over $18 billion.

Franklin Templeton