ETFs and mutual funds will all be on blockchain, says Franklin Templeton CEO – Ledger Insights

Jenny Johnson, President and CEO, Franklin Templeton has long been a fan of blockchain. “Eventually, I think ETFs and mutual funds will all be on blockchain,” she said. Bloomberg Television last week. The asset manager issued a blockchain money market fund, which until last week was the largest blockchain-based treasury fund. THE Franklin Onchain US Government Money the fund has a market capitalization of $367 million and over four hundred token holders. It was recently relegated to second place by BlackRock’s institutionally focused company. BUIDL Fund.

Ms. Johnson spoke about the benefits of blockchain. She explained how the SEC required the asset manager to manage the blockchain-built shareholder registry alongside its existing internal system for six to eight months. “We were amazed at how much cheaper it was to run it on the blockchain. It’s a very effective technology,” she said.

Although this type of benefit seems to appeal primarily to accountants, it affects most businesses, especially anything that involves transactions. She then explained how this reduces the need for counterparties to come together, as everyone shares the same single source of data.

“So there are a lot of costs associated with that. When you eliminate friction in transactions, you can start investing in new areas,” Ms. Johnson said.

She is also interested in new opportunities, such as the possibility of investing in a music track license to earn a small amount of money each time a track is played.

Risks linked to digital assets?

At the same time, the Bloomberg interviewer asked about the risks of digital assets and whether retail investors understand what they are investing in.

“There are many areas of risk, which is why you want good advice if you are investing in the world of digital assets or crypto,” Ms Johnson said. “But there are also very interesting investment opportunities in this area. But it’s a challenge, and one can certainly step on landmines. »

This is one of the reasons why Franklin Templeton is hosting a course on digital assets for financial advisors. While other asset managers are starting to show interest in blockchain, to our knowledge, only Franklin Templeton runs staking nodes on multiple blockchains – Provenance, Cardano, Stellar, Ethereum, Polkadot and Solana.

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