Shift to digital asset technology won’t be ‘slow’ — Franklin Templeton CEO

In an opinion piece published in Fortune, Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson wrote that the “advantages of blockchain are so compelling that we don’t foresee the shift to digital asset technology being slow or incremental,” echoing the growing positive sentiment some traditional finance institutions have toward crypto.

“Indeed, we expect our industry will evolve more in the next five years than in the last 50,” Johnson said. “The pressing question is whether financial institutions will choose to embrace the digital asset wave (and the disruption coming with it), actively fight it or bury its head in the sand.”

Johnson noted that blockchain technology and the growing cryptosphere have many benefits that traditional finance rails struggle to match. These include new financial options for homeowners, integration of global markets, and, eventually, throughput that could reach hundreds of thousands or even millions of transactions per second.

Franklin Templeton, one of the world’s largest asset managers with $1.5 trillion assets under management (AUM), has been involved in digital assets since at least 2021 when it launched its OnChain US Government Money Fund.

The company has launched a Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) index exchange-traded fund and brought its tokenized US government money market fund to different blockchains, including Solana and Base. On Tuesday, it debuted an intraday yield feature that uses blockchain technology.

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Traditional financial institutions are growing increasingly enthusiastic about crypto, spotting opportunities to make their clients (and themselves) money.

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with $11.6 trillion AUM, has launched Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and had representatives speak with the US SEC about various topics. BlackRock’s US spot Bitcoin ETF, iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), is the largest in its class, containing $72.6 billion in net assets.

JPMorgan Chase has been in crypto at least since 2020 when it launched its JPM Coin, a dollar-pegged stablecoin. On June 4, a report indicated that the institution would soon begin accepting crypto ETFs as collateral for loans. On May 20, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said the firm’s clients would soon be able to buy Bitcoin, although the firm would not custody it.

However, not all are pleased about the growing ties between crypto and traditional finance. On Thursday, outgoing Financial Stability Board Chair Klaas Knot warned that while crypto does not, as of yet, pose a risk to traditional finance, “we may be approaching a tipping point here.” According to Knot, areas of concern include crypto ETFs and stablecoins.

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