Payward, the parent company of Kraken Exchange, announced on May 12, 2026, a strategic partnership with investment firm Franklin Templeton to expand its offering of tokenized financial products.
The purpose of this initiative is to Combine access to tokenized equities, custody, performance products, and institutional liquidity Through the services of Kraken, xStocks, OTC, and Prime.
One of the main pivots will be xStocks, a tokenized stock platform developed by Payward. The company says it has already processed more than $30 billion in transaction volume since its launch in 2025.
Through this infrastructure, Franklin Templeton considers launching tokenized investment strategyproducts managed by one of the world’s largest asset managers will be able to be traded on digital infrastructure.
“Payward and Franklin Templeton are building a financial model where the distinction between traditional assets and digital infrastructure no longer makes sense,” said Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken Exchange.
This agreement also Consider integrating BENJI, Franklin Templeton’s platform for tokenized currency funds. As explained by CriptoNoticias, through BENJI, users will be able to manage and trade their tokenized assets 24 hours a day, in addition to accessing a revenue share linked to the OnChain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX).
The platform currently has over $2.28 billion in decentralized assets concentrated.
However, companies They haven’t yet detailed what the first concrete use cases for BENJI will be. It also does not explain how exactly this integration will work for institutional or individual customers.
“The goal should be to make assets on the blockchain more functional for all market participants,” said Sandy Kaul, director of digital assets and innovation at Franklin Templeton.
franklin templeton Currently managing $1.74 trillion in assets and operating in more than 35 countries. The company has been developing products related to digital assets since 2018.
The partnership comes amid growing interest in the tokenization of traditional financial assets, an area where banks, management companies, and exchange platforms are looking to develop products with more liquidity, programmability, and global access.
