On January 14, Franklin Templeton announced an update to two of its institutional-grade money market funds, making them available for use in emerging tokenized finance and regulated stablecoin markets.
This adjustment involves funds managed by its affiliated entity, Western Asset Management, and aims to help institutional clients use familiar cash management tools within blockchain platforms and stablecoin reserve frameworks.
Among them, the Western Asset Institutional Treasury Obligations Fund has adjusted its investment structure to comply with the stablecoin reserve asset requirements of the U.S. GENIUS Act. Currently, it only holds U.S. Treasury bonds with a maturity of no more than 93 days, which can be used as reserve assets for compliant stablecoins.
Another fund, the Western Asset Institutional Treasury Reserves Fund, has launched a new digital institutional share class that allows approved intermediaries to record and transfer fund share ownership through blockchain infrastructure.
Franklin Templeton stated that this move aims to help institutional investors gradually adopt on-chain infrastructure without introducing entirely new crypto-native products. This development also echoes recent moves by large financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase to launch tokenized money market products on Ethereum.
