Franklin Templeton's senior digital assets executive Chetan Karkhanis says Asia is two to three years ahead of other regions in tokenized finance adoption, with Korea, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong leading the shift on-chain.

Karkhanis, who has become a vocal presence at Asia-focused industry events, consistently argues that blockchain technology can enhance traditional finance rather than replace it. His regional assessment is backed by a string of concrete product launches Franklin Templeton has executed across Asia since late 2025.

What has Franklin Templeton actually shipped in Asia?

The firm's Asia-Pacific deployment follows a rapid sequence:

• November 2025: Launched Hong Kong's first tokenized money market fund.
• Q1 2026 target: Collaboration with DBS Bank to roll out Singapore's first tokenized retail money market fund.
• May 2026: Partnership with DigiFT to distribute tokenized products to accredited and institutional investors across the broader Asia region.
• August 2026: Launched the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Liquidity Fund via HashKey Exchange, initially for professional investors in Hong Kong.

The connective tissue across all of these products is Benji, Franklin Templeton's proprietary blockchain platform. Benji first gained attention in 2021, when it powered the world's first US-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain — enabling fractional ownership, greater transparency and on-chain settlement for traditional investment vehicles.

Why is Asia moving faster on tokenization?

Karkhanis's two-to-three-year assessment rests on regulatory scaffolding as much as commercial appetite. Singapore's Monetary Authority has established clear frameworks for digital asset innovation, while Hong Kong's Fintech 2030 plan lays out an explicit roadmap for integrating blockchain technology into the financial system.

That regulatory clarity matters operationally. Funds distributed in Singapore and Hong Kong can move from concept to launch against defined rules, which compresses time-to-market for products like tokenized money market funds that require investor-facing approvals.

How big is the tokenized asset market?

On-chain tokenized real-world assets grew from roughly $5.5 billion in 2021 to $18.6 billion by 2025 — a roughly 3.4x increase over four years. That expansion came while much of the crypto industry weathered a prolonged bear market, suggesting tokenization growth is at least partially decoupled from speculative crypto cycles.

US government securities have been the primary driver of that growth, which makes Franklin Templeton's focus on tokenized Treasuries and money market funds a logical allocation of resources.

What is the strategic bet?

Franklin Templeton's target segments — stablecoins, tokenized Treasuries and money market funds — reflect a deliberately pragmatic approach. Rather than pursuing exotic DeFi applications, the firm is concentrating on products institutional and retail investors already understand, with the blockchain layer adding settlement efficiency rather than forcing investors to rebuild their portfolio strategy.

The operational consequence is a distribution-first model: partner with local institutions such as DBS, DigiFT and HashKey Exchange, secure regulatory runway in Singapore and Hong Kong, and use Benji as the reusable infrastructure layer for each new fund.

The next milestone to watch is the DBS-backed Singapore retail tokenized money market fund, targeted for launch in Q1 2026 — a test of whether regulated on-chain funds can reach mass-market distribution in Asia's most mature digital asset jurisdiction.