Payward, the parent of crypto exchange Kraken, and asset manager Franklin Templeton have announced a broad strategic collaboration spanning tokenized yield products, onchain asset management strategies and institutional crypto services.
The partnership will see the two firms co-design tokenized yield products targeting both institutional clients and, in permitted jurisdictions, Kraken’s retail user base. Franklin Templeton’s BENJI tokenized money market funds will be leveraged on Kraken’s platform for institutional use cases, likely as tokenized collateral. And the firms plan to launch new actively managed strategies built on Payward’s xStocks tokenized equities framework, which has processed over $30 billion in volume since its 2025 launch.
Kraken will also provide custody and access to institutional crypto liquidity through its OTC and Prime services, effectively making Franklin Templeton a Kraken client as well as a partner. Franklin Templeton has been expanding its crypto footprint rapidly. In April it launched a dedicated crypto investment unit, Franklin Crypto, through the acquisition of 250 Digital, a liquid crypto strategies firm spun out of CoinFund.
“Payward and Franklin Templeton are building toward a model of finance where the distinction between traditional assets and digital infrastructure no longer holds,” said Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward.
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