Pioneering Tokenized Funds - Roger Bayston (Franklin Templeton)

With nearly half a billion in assets, Franklin Templeton's pioneering tokenized money market fund - popularly known as BENJI - is clearly a success. But…how did it come about?What does the $1.6 trillion asset manager think tokenized assets will do for capital markets? And what still needs to happen for blockchain rails to go “big time” in the global world of finance?Franklin Templeton’s Head of Digital Assets Roger Bayston sat down with Ian Simpson to discuss all this and more on RULEMATCH Spot On.1:46 - Intro2:46 - The motivation behind FOBXX / BENJI5:33 - Why a tokenized money market fund?6:45 - Who is buying BENJI?8:00 - Interest from crypto-native hedge funds9:40 - Why tokenize when the market isn’t ready?11:23 - Upgrading the velocity of money moving in funds13:30 - Why the BENJI app?15:17 - How does BENJI trading work?18:00 - The “white-label” ecosystem of Franklin Templeton20:50 - Who should get into tokenization as well?21:54 - An “ideal” relationship between Franklin Templeton and Morgan Stanley23:33 - The massive adoption of Web 3.0 wallets24:38 - The innovation of intraday yield25:30 - Adoption among market makers26:49 - The real advantages of going fully “on-chain”28:46 - The hot topic of stablecoins29:56 - The “cold hard geopolitical fact” of US-backed stablecoins31:22 - The holy grail of yield with stablecoins32:19 - J.P. Morgan and Web 3.0 wallet-based organizations34:48 - Franklin Templeton’s conviction about Web 3.035:02 - Coming to terms with the “financialization” of crypto37:33 - The amazing thing about financial advisors in the US38:07 - Financial institutions’ attitude towards tech40:12 - What comes next for tokenization?41:14 - CALPERS and tokenized investments44:29 - Shifting what “is possible” for investments45:29 - The considerations for choosing a blockchain to use48:08 - Working with “digital nation states”49:55 - What could come next?-----ABOUT THE HOST: Ian Simpson is Director of Marketing and Communication at RULEMATCH as well as host of the RULEMATCH Spot On podcast, focused exclusively on the institutional crypto and digital assets industry. Previously he was Head of Marketing at Bitcoin Suisse and Head of Communications at the Crypto Valley Association. Ian is a veteran of the Swiss crypto and digital assets industry since 2017. His insights on the Swiss crypto and blockchain ecosystem have been featured in CoinDesk, the leader in blockchain news.------Disclaimer:The information contained in this podcast about RULEMATCH AG (“RULEMATCH”) and any guest company is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered exhaustive. They do not imply any elements of a contractual relationship nor any offering.