DBS, Franklin Templeton launch Singapore’s first tokenised retail fund

The fund is available to DBS wealth clients and accredited investors, with retail access expected in Q1 2026

Investment manager Franklin Templeton on Monday (Nov 10) announced it is collaborating with DBS to launch Singapore’s first money market fund with a tokenised register.

Called the Franklin Onchain US Dollar Short-Term Money Market Fund, it has been approved by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) as an authorised scheme.

The fund is available to DBS wealth clients and accredited investors through the bank’s relationship managers. Retail access is expected in the first quarter of 2026.

“By enabling fractional ownership and lowering minimum investment thresholds, tokenised funds have the potential to democratise access to high-quality, blockchain-integrated investment strategies,” Franklin Templeton said in a press release.

“Investors will be able to access the fund with a much lower minimum investment sum of US$20.”

It added that the Singapore fund “mirrors the strategy” of a Luxembourg-domiciled Franklin US Dollar Short Term Money Market Fund, which Bloomberg data shows has about US$2.2 billion in assets under management.

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The new fund will bring the same approach to a blockchain-enabled platform, providing access to “high-quality, short-term US dollar assets”, the investment manager said.

Tariq Ahmad, Franklin Templeton’s Asia-Pacific head, said: “As an active industry partner of Project Guardian, led by MAS, we are proud to contribute to the development of a vibrant and forward-looking digital asset ecosystem in Singapore.”

Project Guardian is a collaboration between MAS and the financial industry to enhance market liquidity and efficiency through asset tokenisation. It was launched in May 2022.

Both the Singapore and Luxembourg funds use the Benji Technology Platform, Franklin Templeton’s proprietary blockchain-integrated stack, which facilitates the trading, management and administration of token-based investments.

The platform is available as a white-label technology for banks or asset managers to tokenise securities, or through one of Franklin Templeton’s tokenised money market funds – fully on-chain – that support global client needs across retail, wealth, institutional, bank and collateral use cases.

Also through this platform, Franklin Templeton in 2021 launched the world’s first US-registered mutual fund using blockchain-integrated technology to process transactions and record share ownership.

James Tan, DBS’ group head of investment products and advisory, said: “We want to make sure (tokenisation’s) benefits extend beyond institutional investors... We are making it simpler and more convenient for them to start investing and build resilience through market cycles.”