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Huge investment fund Franklin Templeton has agreed to buy a small crypto investment firm, 250 Digital, which will join its newly formed Franklin Crypto unit as the firm deepens its digital asset efforts.
By adding 250 employees, Franklin Templeton hopes to expand its actively managed crypto investment offering to its institutional clients beyond basic exposure through products such as its Bitcoin ETFs. The company manages $1.8 billion in global assets.
“Together, their investment talent and differentiated strategies strengthen our digital asset capabilities and position us among a small group of global asset managers with a dedicated, institutional crypto investment management team, enhancing our ability to serve clients worldwide,” Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson said in a statement.
The deal is expected to close in the second quarter and will be paid in part with BENJI tokens – the digital assets that represent shares of Franklin Templeton’s blockchain-based investment fund Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund.
The move is part of a broader trend of institutions favoring yield and sophisticated active strategies as passive crypto products (like the spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs) mature. This came as cryptocurrency asset manager CoinShares began trading on Nasdaq on Wednesday.
Institutional appetite for crypto is growing despite the recent price drop. BitcoinThe rise to its October peak, as in previous cycles, reflected steadier institutional buying versus tracking retail momentum, which was reflected in Bitcoin ETF inflows. In March inflows into BlackRock‘S iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) jumped back up, ending a four-month streak of mostly negligible outflows. Additionally, Morgan Stanley plans to launch its own spot Bitcoin ETF after years of remaining largely conservative on cryptocurrencies.
According to CoinMetrics, the price of Bitcoin has fallen 41% in the last six months and 21% this year.
Franklin Templeton has strong roots in active investing and has grown into one of the most advanced legacy financial firms in crypto. Its presence in the digital assets space includes crypto ETFs, traditional funds tokenized on public blockchains, and partnerships with major crypto industry players such as Binance.
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