A new $150 million investment in Franklin Templeton’s tokenized money market fund on the XRP Ledger brought the number of fund shares on the network to nearly four times its previous level, with all of them remaining in a single wallet.
According to CoinDesk’s review of on-chain records, the number of sgBENJI shares rose from about 48 million to 193 million. At the $1.039 share price recorded in transactions, the balance is worth approximately $200 million.
Behind the increase were two separate $75 million investments recorded in Franklin’s issuance account. More than 72.18 million new shares were created for each investment. The total $150 million investment thus substantially increased the fund balance on the network.
One wallet, one investor?
All of the new shares went to the wallet that already held the fund’s existing shares on the XRP Ledger. This wallet and Franklin’s issuance account authorize the same eight signing addresses; any two of those addresses can jointly approve a transaction.
It is not yet clear, however, whether the wallet represents a single investor or multiple clients. Brokers and custodians can hold shares belonging to different clients in a shared account while tracking individual ownership in separate records. Franklin’s fund documents also describe an off-chain recordkeeping system that links blockchain records to real-world identities.
Franklin had not responded to questions about the wallet’s structure or the number of investors behind the investments by the time this article was published.
What does sgBENJI invest in?
Each sgBENJI token represents a share in the Singapore-based Franklin OnChain U.S. Dollar Short-Term Money Market Fund. The fund invests in short-term U.S. dollar-denominated debt instruments, government securities, commercial paper, and bank deposits. Returns are reflected in the share price.
RWA.xyz puts Franklin’s value on the XRP Ledger at approximately $193 million. That figure is based on an assumed price of about $1 per share, while the $1.039 price in transaction records brings the total value to approximately $200 million. In the platform’s rankings, Franklin sits behind RLUSD, at approximately $930 million, and ahead of Ondo, at $185 million.
Not investment advice.