The BENJI fund, a regulated on-chain money market fund, is now available to MoonPay's users, offering a yield-bearing alternative to stablecoins and signaling deeper ties between traditional asset managers and crypto platforms.
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Franklin Templeton has made its BENJI tokenized money market fund available on MoonPay‘s platform. Users can now buy, sell and hold shares of the regulated on-chain fund through MoonPay’s wallet infrastructure. The integration builds on a prior link that enabled 24/7 stablecoin-to-fund swaps between the two firms, and Franklin Templeton called it “the foundation for a broader strategic relationship.”
The BENJI fund – formally the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund – is a tokenized money market fund whose shares trade as ERC-20 tokens. The fund generates yield from short-term U.S. government securities and is registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. MoonPay, best known as a crypto payments and on-ramp service, now offers the fund inside its app alongside traditional stablecoin transactions.
Franklin Templeton’s language around a “broader strategic relationship” signals more than a simple distribution add-on. The asset manager sees MoonPay as a gateway to crypto-native users who want yield-bearing exposure without leaving the digital asset ecosystem. For MoonPay, the fund adds a low-volatility, yield-generating option inside an app that primarily processes fee-based transfers.
Tokenized money market funds have attracted over $1 billion in assets under management across issuers, BlackRock and Securitize among them. Distribution, however, remains fragmented. Most flows still go through traditional brokerage accounts or proprietary platforms. By plugging into MoonPay’s payment rails, Franklin Templeton gains access to a user base that actively transacts in stablecoins and may already be looking for alternatives to idle cash.
The on-chain 24/7 settlement capability already in place removes a key friction point. Investors can move from stablecoins to a regulated money fund and back without waiting for a business-day cutoff. That liquidity mechanism makes the BENJI fund more useful as a cash-management vehicle for high-frequency traders, DeFi protocols and crypto treasury operations.
This integration pressures competitors to expand their own distribution networks. BlackRock’s BUIDL fund and Securitize-issued products now face a narrower gap to crypto-native wallets. The market for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) has been held back by limited access points; a direct MoonPay integration lowers that barrier for a meaningful chunk of the crypto market. For more on the broader trend, see our crypto market analysis.
The reference to a broader strategic relationship points to several plausible next steps. Franklin Templeton could expand the tokenized product lineup – adding funds with different duration or risk profiles – or integrate MoonPay deeper into the asset manager’s own custody and transfer-agent infrastructure.
For MoonPay, the deal strengthens its positioning as a regulated crypto-to-fiat bridge that also supports tokenized securities. That narrows the gap between digital-asset wallets and traditional capital markets. If more asset managers follow Franklin Templeton’s playbook, MoonPay could become a primary distribution channel for tokenized RWAs. The earlier link for 24/7 stablecoin-to-fund swaps (covered in Franklin Templeton-MoonPay Link Enables 24/7 Stablecoin-to-Fund Swaps) already provided the plumbing; the MoonPay distribution adds the users.
The decision point for traders and allocators is whether this partnership generates measurable inflows into the BENJI fund over the next two quarters. A significant uptick in BENJI wallet counts would validate the thesis that retail-accessible tokenized funds can compete with stablecoins for cash-equivalent allocations.
Watch for monthly AUM disclosures from Franklin Templeton’s tokenized fund and for any MoonPay announcements about additional asset manager integrations. The next quarter will show whether this partnership is a narrow distribution deal or the template for how traditional asset managers reach crypto-native capital. Those tracking the space may also find our best crypto brokers guide useful for comparing platforms that now support tokenized funds.
Prepared with AlphaScala research tooling and grounded in primary market data: live prices, fundamentals, SEC filings, hedge-fund holdings, and insider activity. Each story is checked against AlphaScala publishing rules before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.