Roger Bayston of Franklin Templeton believes one word can sum up cryptocurrency investing by 2025.
Diversification.
Along with its competitors, asset management titan launched Bitcoin and Ether ETFs in January 2017 and July 2017. The SEC earlier this month approved 19b-4s for crypto index funds (from Franklin and Hashdex) that would hold both assets — and potentially other coins in the future.
“It feels like ETF legal staffs will be busy in the first part of the year,” Bayston, Bayston’s Digital Assets Lead, said to me. “And I think the story about blockchain and its utility — whether it’s bitcoin as a store of value or these composable chains — is what’s going to be extended in 2025.”
Some spot crypto ETFs have been filed focusing on XRP and solana. It is hoped that a new SEC Administration will be more tolerant of such plans. There are currently no regulated markets for these assets.
David Mann, Franklin Templeton’s head of ETF product & capital markets, said his division chats with Roger’s digital assets team to figure out which other assets are exciting (and why). This helps to steer the product direction.
Franklin Templeton’s Research team evaluates crypto assets the same way it does for equity and credit markets, which they have done for many decades.
“We have opinions for sure,” Bayston said.
ETFs can be categorized into two types: “taking crypto and moving it back to TradFi,” Bayston noted that a part of increasing adoption involves going to where the client feels comfortable.
Franklin Templeton does offer an OnChain US Government Money Fund, but it is not part of the same vehicle. As of November 30, it had assets worth $430,000,000. The segment seems to be ripe for expansion.
“Tokenized money funds can be both a substitute and also a complementary resource to stablecoin users,” Bayston stated.
Stablecoins can be used as collateral, for instance, in derivative transactions. FOBXX provides a yielding alternative.
Franklin Templeton is launching the tokenized fund by 2021. In April, it enabled peer-topeer transfer of its shares and in October made FOBXX accessible on Coinbase’s layer-2 Blockchain.
Focus for 2025: What will be the main focus?
“BENJI has been a US product only,” Bayston informed me. “But what you’re going to see right away as we get into the new year…is an expression of BENJI in a global context.”
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