Franklin Templeton’s Chetan Karkhanis: Asia leads in tokenized finance

Franklin Templeton’s senior digital assets executive Chetan Karkhanis isn’t being subtle about where the firm sees the future of tokenized finance taking shape. According to Karkhanis, Asia is pulling ahead of the rest of the world, with Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong sitting roughly two to three years ahead of other regional markets.

Franklin Templeton’s Asia-Pacific playbook

In November 2025, Franklin Templeton launched Hong Kong’s first tokenized money market fund. That was followed by a collaboration with DBS Bank to roll out Singapore’s first tokenized retail money market fund, with a target launch in Q1 2026. In May 2026, the firm partnered with DigiFT to distribute tokenized products across the broader Asia region, expanding its reach to accredited and institutional investors. By August 2026, Franklin Templeton launched the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Liquidity Fund via a partnership with HashKey Exchange, initially available for professional investors in Hong Kong.

The throughline connecting all of these moves is the Benji platform, Franklin Templeton’s proprietary blockchain infrastructure. Benji first made waves back in 2021 when it powered the world’s first US-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain, enabling fractional ownership, greater transparency, and on-chain settlement for traditional investment products.

Why Asia, and why now

Singapore’s Monetary Authority has established clear frameworks for digital asset innovation, while Hong Kong’s Fintech 2030 plan has laid out an explicit roadmap for integrating blockchain technology into the financial system.

The bigger tokenization picture

The total volume of tokenized real-world assets on public blockchains grew from approximately $5.5 billion in 2021 to $18.6 billion by 2025. US government securities have been the primary driver of that growth, which makes Franklin’s focus on tokenized Treasuries and money market funds a logical bet.

Franklin Templeton’s focus areas, which include stablecoins, tokenized Treasuries, and money market funds, reflect a pragmatic approach. Rather than chasing exotic DeFi applications, the firm is targeting products that institutional and retail investors already understand, with the blockchain component adding efficiency without requiring investors to rethink their entire portfolio strategy.

Karkhanis has been a vocal presence at Asia-focused industry events, consistently making the case that blockchain technology can enhance traditional finance rather than replace it.

The jump from $5.5 billion to $18.6 billion over four years represents a roughly 3.4x increase, and that growth came during a period when much of the crypto industry was dealing with a prolonged bear market.