Franklin Templeton's Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Liquidity Fund—ticker grBENJI—launched on the HashKey Exchange Earn Channel on Aug. 24, making the $15 billion tokenized fund available to digital asset investors across Asia for the first time. The distribution partnership pairs Franklin Templeton's global asset management operation with HashKey Holdings Limited, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under ticker 3887.HK and one of the few crypto exchanges in the region holding full regulatory licenses from Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission.
The fund invests primarily in U.S. government money market instruments and U.S. dollar cash assets, and it reaches investors through blockchain-enabled infrastructure rather than traditional custodial rails. An Aug. 12 no-action letter from the SEC enabled the on-chain fund to bypass standard custody requirements, a regulatory step that cleared the path for this product rollout.
Tokenized treasury and money market funds have grown fifteenfold in two years, making it one of the fastest-expanding areas in digital assets. grBENJI, at $15 billion, sits at the top of that market and represents the single largest tokenized money market product being distributed through a regulated Asian crypto exchange.
Haiyang Ru, CEO of HashKey Exchange BG, said the deal directly addresses institutional demand for compliant, real-world asset yield products. For HashKey Exchange, the listing deepens its Earn ecosystem with a regulated tokenized investment product from an established global manager.
Chetan Karkhanis, senior vice president of Digital Assets Client Engagement at Franklin Templeton, said the fund uses blockchain technology to give investors enhanced transparency. The HashKey distribution extends Franklin Templeton's broader strategy to put regulated fund products on-chain.
The mechanism works as follows: eligible digital asset investors on HashKey Exchange access grBENJI through the platform's Earn Channel, the same interface used for other yield-bearing products on the exchange. The fund's blockchain infrastructure records ownership and transactions on-chain rather than through a traditional transfer agent, giving investors a real-time, verifiable record of holdings. The underlying assets remain U.S. government securities and dollar cash—the tokenization layer changes the distribution and record-keeping infrastructure, not the asset exposure.
Both companies said they plan to expand beyond grBENJI, exploring additional tokenized products across asset classes with a focus on real-world asset solutions that meet transparency and compliance requirements. No specific timeline or additional product names were disclosed.
Tokenized U.S. treasuries have drawn asset managers including BlackRock, whose BUIDL fund launched on Ethereum in 2024, and Franklin Templeton itself, which has operated an on-chain government fund since 2021. The Asia distribution push through HashKey opens a regulated channel for professional investors in a market where most tokenized treasury access has historically run through decentralized protocols or unregulated platforms.
HashKey Exchange's SFC licensing structure enables this distribution. Selling a tokenized money market fund to retail investors in Hong Kong would require a separate regulatory framework; the HashKey-Franklin Templeton collaboration targets institutional and professional investors, the segment the SFC licenses cover. That scoping keeps the product within the existing regulatory perimeter rather than requiring new approvals.
For Franklin Templeton, Asia represents a distribution market where the firm has deep asset management relationships but limited presence in digital asset channels. Routing grBENJI through HashKey Exchange gives the firm a licensed, compliant on-ramp without building its own regional crypto infrastructure. For HashKey, adding a $15 billion fund from Franklin Templeton to its Earn Channel is a direct upgrade in the quality and scale of yield products on the platform.
