Payward and Franklin Templeton announce strategic collaboration to advance tokenized assets and institutional digital finance

 We’re excited to announce a strategic collaboration with Franklin Templeton, a global investment manager and leader in digital asset innovation, to bring traditional financial products onchain and expand their utility across digital asset markets.

The program pairs Franklin Templeton’s global asset management and tokenization expertise with our crypto-native trading, custody and onchain infrastructure. Spanning tokenized equities, qualified custody, actively managed yield products and direct access to institutional crypto liquidity via Kraken’s OTC and Prime services, it is one of the clearest demonstrations yet of how traditional finance and digital asset markets are converging in practice.

Central to the collaboration is tokenization. Our xStocks framework – which has processed over $30 billion in volume since launch in 2025 – will explore the launch of new actively managed investments onchain with Franklin Templeton, making strategies from one of the world’s largest asset managers tradable onchain.

We will work with Franklin Templeton on the launch of tokenized yield-focused products, available to institutional clients and, where permitted, our broader user base. These products will be designed to offer professionally managed strategies with transparency, flexibility, and programmability.

Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward and Kraken: “Payward and Franklin Templeton are building toward a model of finance where the distinction between traditional assets and digital infrastructure no longer holds. The convergence between these two worlds is only going to deepen, and what collaborations like this one unlock is a new class of products that wouldn’t have been possible even three years ago: assets that carry the credibility of multi-decade managers and the programmability of digital infrastructure.”

Alongside these programs, we will work to integrate BENJI across the platform for a variety of institutional use cases to improve utility and capital efficiency in digital markets.

Sandy Kaul, Head of Digital Assets & Innovation at Franklin Templeton: “The focus should be on making onchain assets more functional for the full range of market participants once they are there. By expanding the utility of BENJI and exploring new tokenized products, our work with Payward reflects the growing need to serve both digital-native and institutional customers with solutions built for how capital increasingly moves onchain.”

Franklin Templeton is a pioneer in digital asset investing and blockchain innovation, combining tokenomics research, data science, and technical expertise to deliver cutting-edge solutions since 2018. Learn more at Franklin Templeton Digital Assets.

Tokenized products are created and distributed by Payward. Investors should conduct their own thorough due diligence and consult with legal, tax, and financial advisors before considering any investment in tokenized assets.

Product availability may vary by jurisdiction. Geographic restrictions apply. See Kraken Terms of Service to determine which legal entity you face, based on where you live.

Franklin Templeton manages strategies related to tokenized investments, but does not issue, distribute, promote, or endorse tokenization platforms or tokenized versions of its strategies.

There are risks with the operational reliability or financial stability of tokenization platforms with additional risk including accuracy of pricing, settlement, or redemption processes. Blockchain infrastructure represents a new and rapidly evolving industry which is subject to regulatory uncertainty, competitive pressures, security risk, limited performance history and volatility.

Contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the expected benefits of the collaboration, the development and launch of tokenized products, the integration of BENJI, and the expansion of services. These statements reflect current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including changes in regulatory requirements, market conditions, and technological developments. Neither Payward nor Franklin Templeton undertakes any obligation to update these statements.

Products, services and information may not be available in all jurisdictions and are offered by FT affiliates and/or their distributors as local legislation permits.

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