Kraken Parent Payward Teams Up With Franklin Templeton to Expand Tokenized Assets

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, has partnered with global asset manager Franklin Templeton to accelerate the adoption of tokenized financial products across blockchain-focused markets. The strategic alliance highlights the growing demand for tokenized assets and institutional onchain finance solutions.

Through the collaboration, Payward and Franklin Templeton plan to combine traditional asset management expertise with advanced blockchain infrastructure. The partnership will focus on developing tokenized equities, institutional liquidity solutions, digital asset custody services, and blockchain-powered yield products designed for institutional investors and broader crypto markets.

A key part of the initiative involves Payward’s xStocks platform, a tokenized equities framework that reportedly generated more than $30 billion in trading volume since launching in 2025. The companies aim to expand the platform by introducing actively managed investment strategies that can be issued and traded in tokenized form on blockchain networks.

The partnership also seeks to create yield-generating tokenized investment products that offer enhanced transparency, flexibility, and programmability through blockchain technology. If regulatory conditions allow, these financial products could eventually become available to Kraken’s wider customer base in addition to institutional clients.

Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, stated that the collaboration represents a future where traditional finance and digital infrastructure merge into a unified system. According to Sethi, the partnership could pave the way for a new generation of digital-native financial products backed by established asset management expertise.

Kraken also plans to integrate Franklin Templeton’s BENJI tokenized money market fund platform into its institutional operations to improve capital efficiency and liquidity management. The move comes shortly after Kraken expanded into the crypto derivatives sector through its acquisition of Bitnomial.

Franklin Templeton’s head of digital assets and innovation, Sandy Kaul, emphasized that the goal is to make onchain assets more functional and accessible for a wider range of market participants.