Franklin Templeton's CEO just called out a lot of "tokenized" funds as fake on-chain.
Speaking at TOKEN2049 Singapore, on a panel with Binance co-CEO Richard Teng and Canton Network CEO Yuval Rooz, Jenny Johnson said many rival tokenized funds are just "digital twins" of traditional products.
What she means: the token exists on a blockchain, but the real ownership record still lives in an off-chain database. The chain only mirrors it.
Her contrast is Franklin's own BENJI, launched in 2021 through the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund and now around $2.5B in assets. Its ownership records live natively on public blockchains, so the chain is the source of truth. She also pointed to per-second yield accrual and a cost of about $1.13 per transaction, versus roughly $150 with traditional methods.
Two things to keep in mind:
- She didn't name any rivals, and none have responded yet.
- The $1.13 vs $150 comparison is Franklin's own number. Analysts have already questioned how it was calculated.
Still, the distinction matters. If the off-chain record is the real one, the token is basically a receipt. You get crypto rails on the surface, but the same intermediaries, delays and trust assumptions underneath.
With tokenized stocks, funds and treasuries launching almost weekly, "is it actually on-chain?" may become the most important question to ask before buying any of them.
Would you trust a tokenized fund more if the blockchain itself was the official record?
Like and follow for tokenization news that looks under the hood.
#Tokenization #RWA
Speaking at TOKEN2049 Singapore, on a panel with Binance co-CEO Richard Teng and Canton Network CEO Yuval Rooz, Jenny Johnson said many rival tokenized funds are just "digital twins" of traditional products.
What she means: the token exists on a blockchain, but the real ownership record still lives in an off-chain database. The chain only mirrors it.
Her contrast is Franklin's own BENJI, launched in 2021 through the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund and now around $2.5B in assets. Its ownership records live natively on public blockchains, so the chain is the source of truth. She also pointed to per-second yield accrual and a cost of about $1.13 per transaction, versus roughly $150 with traditional methods.
Two things to keep in mind:
- She didn't name any rivals, and none have responded yet.
- The $1.13 vs $150 comparison is Franklin's own number. Analysts have already questioned how it was calculated.
Still, the distinction matters. If the off-chain record is the real one, the token is basically a receipt. You get crypto rails on the surface, but the same intermediaries, delays and trust assumptions underneath.
With tokenized stocks, funds and treasuries launching almost weekly, "is it actually on-chain?" may become the most important question to ask before buying any of them.
Would you trust a tokenized fund more if the blockchain itself was the official record?
Like and follow for tokenization news that looks under the hood.
#Tokenization #RWA