Franklin Templeton Backs Wallet-Native Future at Ondo Summit

TheNewsCryptoPublished on 2026-02-04Last updated on 2026-02-04

Abstract

At the Ondo Summit in New York, Franklin Templeton outlined a vision for a "wallet-native" financial ecosystem, shifting from traditional account-based models to tokenized digital wallets. The company’s Head of Innovation, Sandy Kaul, stated these wallets will eventually hold the entirety of an individual’s financial life. Through its blockchain platform Benji, Franklin Templeton is tokenizing traditional assets like stocks, bonds, and private funds—not just cryptocurrencies. This model allows assets held across institutions to be represented as tokens on a blockchain, enabling rapid collateralization—such as using tokenized S&P 500 investments to secure loans in seconds. Summit participants from firms like Fidelity and State Street indicated tokenization has moved beyond proof-of-concept to operational use. Franklin Templeton highlighted blockchain’s cost efficiency, citing potential processing cost reductions of up to 82%. The firm has launched several digital asset ETFs, including Bitcoin and Ethereum products, and plans to expand into layer-1 blockchain tokens. CEO Jenny Johnson expects increased institutional investment in tokenized vehicles this year, broadening access to asset classes like private equity and high-yield credit.

The officials of Franklin Templeton traced a vision for virtual wallet-based finance at the Ondo Summit in New York on Tuesday, forecasting an essential shift away from traditional account-based asset management.

The Head of Innovation at Franklin Templeton, Sandy Kaul, mentioned that tokenised digital wallets will in the end hold the “totality” of the financial life of an individual, as per remarks offered at the summit.

The transition shows a move toward what the company referred to as a “wallet-native” ecosystem. The asset manager has been executing this strategy via its proprietary blockchain platform, Benji, which the firm reported is being used to tokenise traditional stocks, bonds, and private funds over simple cryptocurrency products.

As per the proposed model, in the current scenario, assets held over various institutions, comprising stocks at brokerages, savings in banks, and real estate in paper deeds, would be shown as tokens on a blockchain.

The system would permit quick collateralisation, permitting tokenised holdings like S&P 500 investments to safeguard loans within seconds, as per the presentation of the company. The officials from Fidelity, State Street, and WisdomTree took part in the summit and signalled that tokenisation has advanced from the proof-of-concept stage to operational infrastructure, as per the summit reports.

What Did The CEO Says?

Franklin Templeton mentioned that public blockchain record-keeping costs prominently less than legacy systems. The data from Industry quoted at the summit showed that adopting blockchain infrastructure can suppress overall processing costs by up to 82%.

The company has rolled out various spot digital asset exchange-traded funds as part of its tokenisation strategy. The lineup of the product comprises funds offering direct Bitcoin exposure, native Ethereum exposure via the Benji platform, and a diversified portfolio of digital assets.

The firm noted plans to widen into tokens made on layer-1 blockchain networks. The chief executive officer, Jenny Johnson, mentioned that this year would mark surged institutional investment beyond Bitcoin holdings into tokenised investment vehicles.

The products are made to offer wider access to asset classes like private equity and high-yield credit, as mentioned by the firm.

Highlighted Crypto News Today:

Bitwise Acquires Chorus One to Boost Crypto Staking

Single-Day Plunge of 30%, Arthur Hayes Suddenly Liquidates: Why Did ZEC Get Exploded by Security Issues?

On June 5th, Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox disclosed a critical soundness vulnerability in the project's latest Orchard privacy pool. This flaw, found in the elliptic curve multiplication constraints, could allow an attacker to create unlimited counterfeit ZEC within the shielded pool, with transactions appearing valid. The vulnerability was discovered in late May by security researcher Taylor Hornby, who utilized Anthropic's new Opus 4.8 AI model for a targeted audit. The Zcash ecosystem had already performed an emergency network upgrade to patch the issue. However, the detailed disclosure triggered severe market panic, causing ZEC's price to plummet over 30% in a single day. Notably, prominent investor Arthur Hayes announced he had sold his entire ZEC position following the news. The incident starkly challenges the "technological trust" narrative central to privacy coins. Despite years of top-tier cryptographic audits, the bug persisted until uncovered with advanced AI-assisted research. This highlights the growing gap between theoretical perfection and practical implementation in privacy technology. The event serves as a industry-wide warning: in an AI-driven security landscape, the assumption that "undiscovered equals safe" is obsolete. It underscores the urgent need for continuous, proactive security practices combining AI audits, formal verification, and rapid response mechanisms.

foresightnews_api8m ago

Single-Day Plunge of 30%, Arthur Hayes Suddenly Liquidates: Why Did ZEC Get Exploded by Security Issues?

foresightnews_api8m ago

Breaking the Curse of DeFi Cascading Liquidations, Vitalik Proposes a New Solution

**Vitalik Buterin Proposes New DeFi Design to Eliminate Forced Liquidations** Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has published a proposal for a new decentralized finance (DeFi) architecture aimed at removing the automatic liquidation mechanisms prevalent in current lending protocols. The core idea involves creating synthetic assets using options as building blocks, fundamentally avoiding the抵押借贷结构 that triggers forced sell-offs. The proposal responds to a recurring flaw in DeFi: during sharp market downturns, mass自动清算 of under-collateralized positions can exacerbate price declines, creating systemic selling pressure and market instability, as evidenced by recent crypto market volatility. Buterin's model would split an asset like 1 ETH into two option-like derivatives, P and N, pegged to a price index with a set strike price and expiration. At expiry, an oracle determines the settlement price to allocate the underlying ETH between P and N holders. This design eliminates the "cliff" of instant liquidation. Instead, a position's value would gradually drift from its target peg if not actively rebalanced by the user, transferring the rebalancing decision from the protocol to the user or automated tools. A key advantage is the reduced reliance on high-frequency, real-time oracle price feeds, which are vulnerable to manipulation and errors in current systems. The delayed settlement in the options model allows for more robust, fault-tolerant oracle designs. However, significant challenges remain for practical adoption. High transaction costs (slippage) from frequent rebalancing on automated market makers (AMMs) could erode user funds. The model may not be suitable for stablecoins requiring a strict 1:1 dollar peg, as it inherently allows for value drift. Success would depend on developing new liquidity provisioning models and deep markets for these synthetic assets. The proposal represents a fundamental rethinking of DeFi risk management, challenging the industry to explore alternatives to被动集中平仓 rather than merely optimizing existing liquidation processes. It remains a theoretical framework awaiting implementation and testing by development teams.

foresightnews_api11m ago

Breaking the Curse of DeFi Cascading Liquidations, Vitalik Proposes a New Solution

foresightnews_api11m ago

Bitcoin's Decline Marks the Transformation of Crypto

Title: The Decline of Bitcoin Marks the Transformation of Crypto While Bitcoin's price recently fell below $70,000, down approximately 45% from its peak, the broader crypto industry is not following it into decline. Instead, crypto is maturing and evolving beyond its dependence on Bitcoin's price movements. Two of Bitcoin's core functions are being usurped. First, AI has captured its role as the primary speculative asset. AI, with its tangible revenue, explosive demand, and massive capital inflows ($700-830 billion in 2024), is siphoning off the speculative "hot money" that once drove Bitcoin. It also contributes to a sustained high-interest-rate environment, further tightening liquidity for assets like Bitcoin. Second, dollar-pegged stablecoins like USDC and USDT have replaced Bitcoin as the crypto market's foundational currency and primary on/off-ramp. Most trading pairs and on-chain transactions are now settled in stablecoins, severing the historical link where all capital inflows had to pass through Bitcoin first. This decoupling allows projects to thrive based on their own fundamentals rather than Bitcoin's price. Examples include Hyperliquid, an on-chain derivatives exchange with annual revenues of $8-13 billion, and prediction market platform Polymarket, valued at $200 billion with $3.65 billion in annual fees. These projects are evaluated on traditional metrics like revenue and user growth. New opportunities are emerging, particularly around privacy. Privacy coins like Zcash (ZEC) are seeing surging demand, while infrastructure like NEAR enables private, cross-chain asset transfers without requiring users to hold a specific token—privacy becomes a universal service layer. In this new paradigm, stablecoins are the universal cash, various project tokens represent equity, and privacy-enabled cross-chain coordination layers (like NEAR) act as the critical infrastructure connecting a fragmented, multi-chain ecosystem. Bitcoin is now just one asset among many. The era where the entire crypto market moved in lockstep with Bitcoin is over. The industry's health should now be judged by project fundamentals—real revenue, active users, and tokenomics that capture value—and the development of the underlying infrastructure enabling a mature, dollar-denominated crypto economy.

foresightnews_api14m ago

Bitcoin's Decline Marks the Transformation of Crypto

foresightnews_api14m ago

After being noticed by IBM, the token of three.ws surged 50 times

IBM's public acknowledgment and collaboration with Solana AI project three.ws sparked a massive 50x surge in its $THREE token. Three.ws is building a "3D Agent Layer" for the internet, aiming to move AI beyond chat interfaces into interactive 3D digital characters that can be embedded on websites. These agents possess bodies (3D models), brains (LLMs), memory, skills, and optional on-chain identities and wallets for payments. The platform's architecture consists of four layers: a Viewer layer for 3D rendering, an Agent layer for AI behavior and skills, an optional Identity layer for persistent profiles, and an Embedding layer for deployment. For monetization, developers can set per-use fees for agent interactions, paid in USDC via the x402 protocol. Key to its enterprise strategy are partnerships with IBM and AWS. Integration with AWS Marketplace provides enterprise billing and deployment channels, while the IBM collaboration aims to combine three.ws's 3D agents with IBM's enterprise AI, cloud services, and Granite models. The challenge remains whether businesses will adopt these embodied AI agents and what utility the $THREE token will ultimately hold within the ecosystem.

foresightnews_api15m ago

After being noticed by IBM, the token of three.ws surged 50 times

foresightnews_api15m ago

Lightspark CEO: In Ten Years, Bitcoin Will Be as Invisible as TCP/IP, Yet Power Trillions in Daily Transactions

A decade from now, Bitcoin will function like TCP/IP — invisible yet foundational, supporting trillions in daily transactions globally, according to Lightspark CEO David Marcus. In this future, a coffee shop in Lagos receives instant payment, a manufacturer in São Paulo settles an invoice with a supplier in Ho Chi Minh City, and a freelancer in Bangalore gets paid weekly from an Austin startup — all via Bitcoin's settlement layer, with none of the parties consciously interacting with it. This vision parallels the adoption of open protocols: first driven by necessity where existing systems fail, then scaling rapidly as tools mature and economic benefits become clear. The structural shift begins with wallets. Modern non-custodial wallets, like Spark, allow users to hold dollars, local currency, and Bitcoin in a single address, seamlessly switching between them. This eliminates friction and revolutionizes global custody, moving significant deposits to user-controlled keys not by ideology, but by superior utility. As a result, Bitcoin becomes the default savings layer for billions, as its fixed supply and appreciating value make it a rational choice for savers holding it alongside stablecoins in their everyday wallets. Businesses follow a similar path, from small companies in emerging markets to multinational corporations, holding Bitcoin alongside operational stablecoins. The latest trend is direct Bitcoin transactions for commerce. When both parties hold Bitcoin, transacting in it becomes the simplest option — no conversions, no intermediary currency. This starts in niche areas like high-value B2B settlements but grows as infrastructure makes sending Bitcoin as easy as stablecoins. An accelerating force is AI agents. By 2036, AI agents conducting commerce on behalf of individuals and firms will increasingly choose Bitcoin for settlement. Optimizing for speed, finality, and minimal counterparty risk across jurisdictions, they find Bitcoin's global, neutral, and programmable network ideal for netting and settling obligations. Thus, Bitcoin is becoming the native currency for machine commerce, just as it has become a native savings asset for humans. The global monetary system is being rebuilt from the protocol layer: open infrastructure, default self-custody, Bitcoin settling everything underneath, with stablecoins as the interface. Most users won't think about Bitcoin when they transact — and they won't need to.

foresightnews_api18m ago

Lightspark CEO: In Ten Years, Bitcoin Will Be as Invisible as TCP/IP, Yet Power Trillions in Daily Transactions

foresightnews_api18m ago

Trading

Spot

Futures

Franklin Templeton Backs Wallet-Native Future at Ondo Summit

Abstract

What Did The CEO Says?

Related Questions

Related Reads