TechFlow News — On January 2, according to Blockworks, Roger Bayston, Head of Digital Assets at asset management giant Franklin Templeton, said "diversification" will be the key theme for crypto investments in 2025. The firm launched Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs in January and July 2024 respectively, and the SEC recently approved Franklin Templeton’s and Hashdex’s applications for a crypto index fund that can hold both assets, with potential to include more tokens in the future.
David Mann, Head of ETF Products and Capital Markets, revealed that the team is evaluating other promising crypto assets to guide its product roadmap. In the tokenized funds space, the firm’s on-chain U.S. government money market fund (FOBXX) reached $430 million in AUM by the end of November 2024. Launched in 2021, FOBXX enabled peer-to-peer share transfers in April 2024 and went live on Coinbase’s Layer 2 network in October. Bayston emphasized that as a yield-bearing product, FOBXX can serve as an alternative or complement to stablecoin holdings.
Looking ahead to 2025, Franklin Templeton plans to expand its tokenized fund BENJI from the U.S. to global markets. Meanwhile, there is growing optimism around spot ETF applications for crypto assets such as Solana and XRP, with expectations that the incoming SEC leadership may take a more open stance.
