Animoca Brands partners with Franklin Templeton to expand NUVA’s tokenized asset lineup
The partnership aims to widen institutional access to tokenized real-world assets on NUVA's vault marketplace, with cultural assets also on the table
Animoca Brands has found a heavyweight partner for its tokenized asset ambitions. On October 8, 2026, the company and Franklin Templeton announced a strategic partnership to expand institutional access to tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) through NUVA.
NUVA is a vault marketplace built by Animoca Brands and Nuva Labs. Adding a firm that manages approximately $1.8 trillion in assets is one way to signal that the project is aiming beyond crypto natives.
What the partnership covers
The core goal is to broaden what NUVA offers. Specifically, the two companies want to bring in a wider range of assets beyond the Provenance Blockchain.
Assets on Provenance recorded over $30 billion in total value locked (TVL) as of late September 2026.
The partnership also plans to explore tokenizing cultural assets.
Animoca Brands and Franklin Templeton will co-author a four-part research series on how traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi) are converging.
How NUVA works
NUVA went live on Ethereum Mainnet on May 13, 2026. It is a non-custodial platform, which means users keep control of their assets rather than handing them to an intermediary.
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Its vault tokens follow the ERC-20 standard, the common format for fungible tokens on Ethereum. That choice matters because ERC-20 tokens can plug into other DeFi applications with little friction.
The platform is designed for multichain distribution of RWAs.
The first vaults lean on established financial products. These include Figure Technologies’ YLDS, an SEC-registered stablecoin that pays yield, along with home equity lines of credit (HELOCs).
NUVA offers permissionless access to eligible investors, and certain products carry no lockup periods.
Why Franklin Templeton fits the picture
Franklin Templeton is not new to this. The firm has prior experience with its BENJI platform and the OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund.
What this means for tokenized assets
The Provenance base of over $30 billion in TVL gives the platform a meaningful foundation. The partnership has not disclosed specific asset additions or timelines.
The inclusion of an SEC-registered stablecoin like YLDS is worth noting. Products with a clear regulatory footprint tend to be easier for compliance teams to approve, which can lower the barrier for traditional firms dipping a toe into on-chain markets.
Non-custodial, permissionless platforms shift more responsibility onto users. Composability also means a vault token can end up inside other protocols that carry their own smart contract and liquidity risks. Multichain distribution adds another layer of complexity.