Franklin Templeton pitches BENJI as an onchain rate in Pendle discussion

Franklin Templeton wants its tokenized money market fund to be more than a parking spot for cash. In a discussion shared with Pendle on X, the firm described BENJI as a way for its Treasury money fund to serve as an onchain rate and collateral.

What BENJI actually is

Think of BENJI as a receipt that lives on a blockchain. Each token is equivalent to one share in Franklin Templeton’s money market funds, and the fund aims to hold a stable net asset value of $1.00.

The flagship product behind it is the Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund, which trades under the ticker FOBXX. Instead of a transfer agent keeping ownership records in a private database, the fund records them on public chains. The payoff is real-time tracking of who owns what, plus faster processing of transactions.

Put simply, the shares themselves are the tokens. There is no wrapper sitting between the investor and the fund.

The numbers behind the pitch

The US version of BENJI launched on the Stellar network in April 2021. Since then, it has reportedly grown to hold between $667 million and $687 million in onchain assets as of late 2026.

Stellar was only the starting line. Franklin Templeton has since expanded the platform to support 11 blockchains.

The firm also runs a Singapore-domiciled variant called sgBENJI. That version alone holds about $231 million in assets. Across all BENJI variants, total assets reportedly exceed $2 billion.

Recent activity shows institutional appetite is not hypothetical. In October 2026, Franklin Templeton issued $150 million of sgBENJI tokens on the XRP Ledger.

The issuance came through two subscriptions of $75 million each. Each produced approximately 72.18 million shares, and the holdings sat concentrated in a single wallet.

The regulatory unlock

On August 12, 2026, the SEC issued a no-action letter that allows Franklin Templeton’s registered funds and ETFs to use BENJI shares for cash management and securities-lending collateral, under specific conditions.

The practical effect is significant. Franklin’s own mutual funds and ETFs can now treat blockchain-based fund shares as usable collateral. That marks a meaningful step for blockchain-based custody inside regulated fund management.

Why Pendle is in the conversation

DeFi integration has become a recurring theme in how Franklin Templeton talks about BENJI. Discussions have centered on using the tokenized shares in yield optimization strategies, aimed mainly at institutional and qualified investors.

A conversation with Pendle fits that thread. The idea of BENJI functioning as an “onchain rate” suggests Franklin Templeton sees its fund yield as a reference point that onchain markets could build around.

Chetan Karkhanis, Senior VP at Franklin Templeton’s FIRST group for Asia Pacific, has separately discussed BENJI’s origins and features in an interview. That interview also touched on the product’s potential for broader DeFi integration.

What this means

For institutional investors, the combination of a $1.00 NAV fund, multi-chain availability and an SEC no-action letter creates a new kind of instrument. It can sit on a balance sheet as cash management, then move onchain to serve as collateral or a yield source.

There are caveats worth tracking. The SEC relief applies under specific conditions, so its scope is narrower than a full regulatory framework. The October sgBENJI issuance was concentrated in one wallet, which means headline growth can depend heavily on a handful of large holders. And DeFi integration is still framed around institutional and qualified investors, so broad retail access is not the near-term story.