Franklin Templeton Acquires CoinFund Spinoff to Anchor New Crypto Unit

Franklin Templeton completed its acquisition of 250 Digital, the crypto asset manager spun out of CoinFund in early 2025, and rolled the team into a new business line called Franklin Crypto. The unit targets institutional clients – sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, endowments – with active digital asset strategies.

Christopher Perkins, a CoinFund alum, will lead Franklin Crypto. Seth Ginns takes the chief investment officer role. Both will coordinate with Tony Pecore, who remains with Franklin Templeton Digital Assets. The new division spans blockchain infrastructure across XRP Ledger, Stellar, Polygon, and Aptos.

The deal was announced in April. Franklin Templeton paid in part with BENJI tokens, the tokenized version of its Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund. The firm is also committing its own capital to the liquid crypto strategies 250 Digital managed before the acquisition.

The launch comes after two Bitcoin-linked ETF filings earlier this month – products structured as 95% equity / 5% BTC portfolios. Franklin's spot XRP ETF (XRPZ) pulled in $6.7 million in net inflows during the June 14-18 trading week.

Franklin Templeton manages roughly $1.78 trillion in assets. The 250 Digital acquisition gives it a dedicated team and a track record of managing institutional crypto portfolios, not just passive ETF vehicles. Whether that translates into AUM growth depends on how much of the CoinFund book follows the team to the new structure.