Why $1.6 Trillion Franklin Templeton Went All in on Tokenization! | Roger Bayston

March 25, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Franklin Templeton, managing $1.6 trillion in assets, has committed heavily to blockchain tokenization under Roger Bayston, its head of digital assets. With nearly four decades in finance, Bayston traces his career from Wall Street index funds in the 1980s to pioneering tokenized products like Benji money market funds. In this interview, he explains how distributed ledger technology addresses legacy frictions in asset management, such as multi-day settlements and siloed records, while outlining Franklin Templeton's multi-chain deployment and future plans.

Evolution from Legacy Systems to Blockchain Rails

Bayston describes asset management as connecting capital providers (pension funds) with seekers (businesses), with intermediaries extracting rents through slow processes like five-day stock settlements via mismatched records. Technologies from the internet era onward have eroded these costs, but blockchain accelerates it via shared ledgers where all parties hold identical records instantly.

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What you'll learn

1 (02:33) **Guest Introduction** - Roger Bayston, Head of Digital Assets at $1.6T Franklin Templeton, discusses firm's blockchain push
2 (05:42) **Market Evolution Overview** - Tech reduces asset management costs and intermediaries via DLT
3 (09:03) **Addressing Skeptics on Blockchain** - Benji tokenized money fund proves utility with $1B+ AUM across regions
4 (11:22) **Benji Mechanics and Utility** - Instant transfers and second-by-second yield accrual on blockchain
5 (13:10) **Multi-Chain Strategy** - Deploying on 10-11 public blockchains as utility rails
6 (18:46) **No Permissioned Chain Plans** - Prefers public chains over hybrids like Coinbase's
7 (21:07) **Expanding Asset Tokenization** - Beyond money funds to all classes via wallet ecosystems

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Roger Bayston, Head of digital assets at Franklin Templeton, joined me to discuss the firms tokenization strategy and the future of finance.
Topics:
- Franklin’s Benji technology and Tokenization initiatives
- Tokenization market outlook
- Binance partnership
- Future of Finance
- Permissioned vs Public blockchains
- Clarity Act and Crypto Regulation impact
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⏰ Time Stamps ⏰
00:00 Intro
00:02:05 Roger's background
00:08:04 Why Blockchain & Tokenization
00:16:44 Will FT develop a Permissioned chain?
00:21:02 Binance partnership
00:25:06 Risks with Tokenization
00:32:00 Tokenization marker & Future Finance
00:39:22 FT Crypto Wallets
00:46:15 Clarity Act impact
00:58:09 Wrap up question
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