Franklin Templeton has partnered with HashKey Exchange to distribute its Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Liquidity Fund, known as grBENJI, to eligible investors in Asia. The fund went live on HashKey’s Earn channel on August 24, giving professional investors a regulated route into a blockchain-enabled money market product. The launch extends Franklin Templeton’s tokenization strategy through an established Asian digital-asset distribution platform.
grBENJI invests primarily in U.S. government money market instruments and U.S. dollar cash assets. The blockchain component changes how investors access and interact with the fund rather than transforming the underlying portfolio into a crypto-native strategy. Its investment exposure remains rooted in conventional government money markets while blockchain infrastructure supports the digital ownership and distribution layer.
HashKey Opens a Regulated Distribution Route for grBENJI
Access is restricted to professional investors, and the product cannot be offered to the general public in Hong Kong. HashKey Exchange itself operates under licenses issued by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission, whose official list of licensed virtual asset trading platforms identifies Hash Blockchain Limited as the operator of HashKey Exchange. The structure therefore combines tokenized fund distribution with an established regulated-market access point.
Franklin Templeton said blockchain technology can improve transparency, accessibility, settlement speed and cost efficiency around the product. Those operational benefits relate to the fund’s infrastructure and administration rather than guaranteeing higher returns or eliminating investment risk. HashKey, meanwhile, is incorporating grBENJI into its Earn offering as demand grows for yield-bearing products linked to real-world financial assets.
The partnership also gives Franklin Templeton access to HashKey’s mix of institutional clients and digital-native banking and wealth platforms. That distribution angle may prove as important as the tokenization technology itself, because institutional RWA products ultimately depend on compliant investor onboarding, custody and practical channels through which capital can reach them.
Broader Tokenized Products Remain a Future Step
Franklin Templeton and HashKey intend to explore additional tokenized products and asset classes after the grBENJI launch. The companies referenced HashKey’s wider footprint spanning Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Dubai and Bermuda, but the announcement does not confirm that grBENJI or future products are already approved or available across all of those jurisdictions.
That distinction keeps the current rollout relatively focused. The confirmed development is the addition of grBENJI to HashKey Exchange’s Earn channel for eligible professional investors in Asia. Future regional expansion will still depend on product approvals, investor eligibility and the regulatory requirements of each market rather than the partnership alone.
The launch moves tokenized money-market infrastructure deeper into institutional distribution rather than simply demonstrating that fund shares can exist onchain. The next meaningful test will be whether regulated access through platforms such as HashKey translates into sustained investor adoption and broader use of tokenized funds across Asian financial markets.
