Global asset management giant Franklin Templeton has expanded its institutional growth strategy in the cryptocurrency market with a new step. The company has completed its acquisition of 250 Digital, which operates in active crypto investment management, and officially established a new dedicated digital asset management unit called Franklin Crypto.
According to Franklin Templeton’s statement, Franklin Crypto will offer actively managed cryptocurrency strategies to institutional investors. The new unit will combine the crypto investment expertise of the 250 Digital team with Franklin Templeton’s global distribution network. This structure shows that the company does not want to limit its digital asset strategy to passive products alone, and is instead moving toward a more selective, strategy-driven investment model.
Franklin Templeton, which manages approximately $1.78 trillion in assets, has become increasingly visible in the digital asset space in recent years. The company had already been working to build a strong position in the sector through spot crypto ETFs, tokenization initiatives and blockchain-based fund infrastructure. The completion of the 250 Digital acquisition now shows that this strategy is being extended into active investment management.
250 Digital Team Joins Franklin Crypto
As part of the acquisition, 250 Digital’s entire investment team has joined Franklin Templeton. The statement also noted that the liquid cryptocurrency strategies previously managed by the team under CoinFund have been transferred to Franklin Crypto. This positions the new unit not only as an advisory or research-focused structure, but as a division with direct portfolio management and active strategy development capabilities.
Franklin Templeton will also invest its own capital in these liquid strategies as part of the transaction. This detail shows that the company is not merely providing operational support to the newly formed unit, but is also demonstrating financial commitment to its strategies. For institutional investors, such a move can be seen as a sign of the manager’s confidence in its own products.
Two well-known names from the crypto industry will lead the new division. Christopher Perkins will serve as Head of Franklin Crypto, while Seth Ginns will serve as the unit’s Chief Investment Officer. They will be joined by Tony Pecore, an experienced figure on Franklin Templeton’s digital asset investment side. Franklin Crypto will operate under Sandy Kaul, the company’s Head of Innovation.
Institutional Investor Demand in Focus
The launch of Franklin Crypto also reflects the changing approach of major asset managers toward the cryptocurrency market. In recent years, institutional access to crypto has become significantly easier through spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, but demand in the market is no longer limited to passive products that simply track prices. More sophisticated investors are also showing interest in actively managed strategies built around market cycles, liquidity conditions, token economics and risk management.
Franklin Templeton’s move aims to respond directly to this need. Through Franklin Crypto, the company will seek to bring a more traditional asset management discipline to the cryptocurrency market. Elements such as active portfolio management, fundamental research, risk control and institutional reporting could play a decisive role in offering crypto strategies to a broader investor base.
A Strategy Beyond ETFs
Franklin Templeton already had a separate structure focused on research, active portfolio construction and institutional risk oversight in digital assets. Franklin Crypto now adds a more specialized layer to this infrastructure, directly focused on cryptocurrency strategies.
