Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund, the first U.S.-registered mutual fund run on blockchain, is now supported on Ethereum via Polygon
SAN MATEO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Franklin Templeton today announces that the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX) (the “Fund”), the first U.S.-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain to process transactions and record share ownership, is now supported on the Polygon blockchain.
Franklin Templeton continues to see operational efficiencies through use of a blockchain-integrated system, including increased security, faster transaction processing and reduced costs, benefiting Fund shareholders. The Fund’s transfer agent maintains the official record of share ownership via a proprietary blockchain-integrated system that utilizes blockchain technology for transaction activity.
“Extending the reach of the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund to Polygon enables the Fund to be further compatible with the rest of the digital ecosystem, specifically through an Ethereum-based blockchain. This furthers our distribution reach through a Layer 2 (L2) blockchain that has a proven track record,” said Roger Bayston, Head of Digital Assets at Franklin Templeton.
Tapping into the scope and breadth of the Ethereum ecosystem opens up a world of possibilities for investors. The Fund offers a competitive yield and is a regulated 1940 Act fund that invests at least 99.5 percent of its total assets in government securities, cash and repurchase agreements collateralized fully by government securities or cash. The Fund’s investment goal is to provide investors with as high a level of current income as is consistent with the preservation of shareholders’ capital and liquidity and aims to maintain a stable $1.00 share price.
One share of the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund is represented by one BENJI token. Token holders can gain exposure to the Fund in digital wallets through the Benji Investments app, available in mobile app stores.
“It’s amazing to have a legacy institution like Franklin Templeton bringing transparency, interoperability, and secure, democratized access to their financial instruments, all things afforded with Polygon,” said Colin Butler, Global Head of Institutional Capital at Polygon Labs. “When we take a step back and look at these things less as blockchain products and more as benefits created by utilizing blockchain rails, we start to see the ‘why.’ Tokenized assets are going to positively rewire the global financial system, and Franklin Templeton is at the forefront of this movement.”
“The Polygon blockchain ecosystem spans many L2, sidechains, and sovereign blockchains and our suite of Ethereum scalability solutions has seen significant adoption across DeFi, NFTs, and enterprises,” added Mr. Butler. “The Polygon blockchain also provides access to a $260 billion market — the approximate aggregate value of all ERC-20 (Ethereum-based) assets.”
About Franklin Templeton
Franklin Resources, Inc. [NYSE:BEN] is a global investment management organization with subsidiaries operating as Franklin Templeton and serving clients in over 155 countries. Franklin Templeton’s mission is to help clients achieve better outcomes through investment management expertise, wealth management and technology solutions. Through its specialist investment managers, the company offers boutique specialization on a global scale, bringing extensive capabilities in equity, fixed income, multi-asset solutions and alternatives. With offices in more than 30 countries and approximately 1,300 investment professionals, the California-based company has 75 years of investment experience and approximately $1.4 trillion in assets under management as of March 31, 2023. For more information, please visit franklintempleton.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
About Polygon Labs:
Polygon Labs develops Ethereum scaling solutions for Polygon protocols. Polygon Labs engages with other ecosystem developers to help make available scalable, affordable, secure and sustainable blockchain infrastructure for Web3. Polygon Labs has initially developed a growing suite of protocols for developers to gain easy access to major scaling solutions, including layer 2s (zero-knowledge rollups and optimistic rollups), sidechains, hybrid chains, app-specific chains, enterprise chains, and data availability protocols. Scaling solutions that Polygon Labs initially developed have seen widespread adoption with tens of thousands of decentralized apps, unique addresses exceeding unique addresses exceeding 211 million, over 1.12 million smart contracts created and 2.36 billion total transactions processed since inception. The existing Polygon network is home for some of the biggest Web3 projects, such as Aave, Uniswap, and OpenSea, and well-known enterprises, including Robinhood, Stripe and Adobe. Polygon Labs is carbon neutral with the goal of leading Web3 in becoming carbon negative. If you’re an Ethereum Developer, you’re already a Polygon developer! Leverage Polygon’s fast and secure txns for dApps you develop, get started here.
You could lose money by investing in the Fund. Although the Fund seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, it cannot guarantee it will do so. An investment in the Fund is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. The Fund’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Fund, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Fund at any time.
Investors should carefully consider a fund’s investment goals, risks, charges and expenses before investing. To obtain a summary prospectus and/or prospectus, which contains this and other information, talk to your financial professional, call us at (800) DIAL BEN/342-5236 or visit franklintempleton.com. Please carefully read a prospectus before you invest or send money.
Copyright © 2023. Franklin Distributors, LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC. All rights reserved.
Contacts
Franklin Templeton Corporate Communications:
Rebecca Radosevich, (212) 632-3207, rebecca.radosevich@franklintempleton.com
Katherine Fox, (646) 818-9010, kfox@prosek.com
