Aptos Foundation Integrates Franklin Templeton's OnChain US Government Money Fund

According to Cointelegraph, Aptos Foundation and Franklin Templeton have announced the integration of the Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX) on the Aptos blockchain. This development leverages the Move programming language to support the Treasury-backed fund, integrating real-world assets in non-Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) blockchain environments. The money market fund primarily invests in US government securities, cash, and repurchase agreements collateralized by government securities. As of now, it has surpassed $427.95 million in assets under management. Notably, it is the first US-registered mutual fund to use blockchain technology to process transactions and record share ownership. Each share of the fund is tokenized and represented as one BENJI token, which can be stored in digital wallets. Bashar Lazaar, head of grants and ecosystem at Aptos Foundation, emphasized the importance of connecting both traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) worlds, as well as EVM and non-EVM networks. Aptos was founded by Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, who were previously involved in Meta’s blockchain project Diem. Following the winding down of Diem, Shaikh and Ching utilized the technology to create Aptos. The network has experienced significant activity, achieving a record 115.4 million transactions in a single day in May 2024. Since its launch in October 2022, more than 1.7 billion transactions have been completed on Aptos. Data from DefiLlama indicates that the blockchain currently holds $545 million in total value locked. Roger Bayston, head of digital assets at Franklin Templeton, stated that the Aptos Network was chosen for its unique characteristics that meet the rigorous suitability standards for the Benji platform. The tokenization of funds is rapidly evolving among traditional financial products, enabling fractional ownership of assets. Other notable players in this space include BlackRock and ParaFi Capital.