Franklin Templeton Plans Mutual Fund on Solana

Franklin Templeton, a major asset manager with $1.3T in assets under management, announced plans at Breakpoint to launch a mutual fund on Solana.

What's the scoop?

• Diversified Investments: The mutual fund would pool investments for a diversified portfolio of securities such as stocks and bonds, offering a new service different from FT’s previous tokenized funds.
• RWA Evolution: This announcement follows similar moves by firms like Libre, which is backed by Brevan Howard’s WebN Group and Nomura’s Laser Digital, to tokenize funds on Solana, including high-yield vehicles like the Hamilton Lane SCOPE fund and Brevan Howard’s Master Fund.

Bankless Take:

Franklin Templeton’s announcement starts Breakpoint off on a high note, accelerating the traction of RWAs on Solana. After launching a Bitcoin ETF, then an Ethereum ETF, Franklin Templeton has ventured into tokenized funds, launching an onchain treasuries fund on Stellar and Polygon, and recently expanding it to Arbitrum. The launch of a new mutual fund product on Solana, if it ends up being that rather than just an extension of their existing treasuries fund, could be seen as a christening of the chain for further involvement and long-term investment.