Franklin Templeton’s Chetan Karkhanis: Asia leads in tokenized finance

Franklin Templeton’s senior digital assets executive Chetan Karkhanis isn’t being subtle about where the firm sees the future of tokenized finance taking shape. According to Karkhanis, Asia is pulling ahead of the rest of the world, with Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong sitting roughly two to three years ahead of other regional markets. Franklin Templeton’s Asia-Pacific playbook In November 2025, Franklin Templeton launched Hong Kong’s first tokenized money market fund. That was followed by a collaboration with DBS Bank to roll out Singapore’s first tokenized retail money market fund, with a target launch in Q1 2026. In May 2026, the firm partnered with DigiFT to distribute tokenized products across the broader Asia region, expanding its reach to accredited and institutional investors. By August 2026, Franklin Templeton launched the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Liquidity Fund via a partnership with HashKey Exchange, initially available for professional investors in Hong Kong. The throughline connecting all of these moves is the Benji platform, Franklin Templeton’s proprietary blockchain infrastructure. Benji first made waves back in 2021 when it powered the world’s first ...