Payward and Franklin Templeton Launch Actively Managed On-Chain Funds via Kraken

Payward, Kraken's parent company, announced on May 12 a strategic collaboration with Franklin Templeton to develop on-chain investment products. The partnership pairs the $1.74 trillion-AUM asset manager with Kraken's xStocks tokenized equities framework, which has processed over $30 billion in trading volume since its 2025 launch.

The deal spans four product workstreams: tokenized equities via xStocks, qualified custody for institutional clients, actively managed on-chain yield products, and integration of Franklin Templeton's BENJI tokenized money-market funds into Kraken. BENJI integration will enable institutional clients to post yield-bearing tokenized MMFs as collateral against derivatives positions—a workflow common in traditional finance but newly viable on-chain.