Franklin Templeton Shatters Barriers: Hong Kong’s First Tokenized Fund Goes Live

Traditional finance meets blockchain revolution as Franklin Templeton launches Hong Kong's inaugural tokenized fund—bypassing legacy systems and cutting through regulatory red tape.

Digital Assets Get Institutional Stamp

Wall Street's quiet invasion of crypto continues as another heavyweight embraces blockchain infrastructure. The fund tokenization wave hits Asian markets with Franklin Templeton's landmark Hong Kong offering.

Tokenization Cuts the Middleman

Forget paper certificates and settlement delays—digital tokens represent fund shares directly on blockchain ledgers. Investors gain instant transferability while the fund slashes administrative overhead by digitizing the entire lifecycle.

Hong Kong Embraces Crypto Leadership

The Special Administrative Region positions itself as Asia's digital asset hub, welcoming institutional innovation while traditional finance veterans scramble to stay relevant. Because nothing says 'modern finance' like watching 200-year-old firms suddenly discover blockchain.

Tokenized funds don't just streamline investing—they expose how much friction traditional finance has tolerated for decades. The revolution won't be televised; it'll be tokenized.

Hong Kong’s 2030 plan

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has officially launched its Fintech 2023 Strategy at the Hong Kong FinTech Week 2025.  In the official press release, the event marked a decade of fintech progress with over 40 initiatives to modernize the city’s financial infrastructure. It also aims to embed AI in finance, develop a tokenization ecosystem, and enhance sector-wide resilience.

The launch of the Franklin tokenized fund marks the first project under the HKMA’s fintech 2030 plan.

HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue described this as the beginning of Hong Kong’s “fintech 3.0” era, focused on building resilience and preparing for future innovation. Now ranked as the world’s top fintech hub with over 1,200 firms, the city expects sector revenue to exceed US$600 billion by 2032. The first project under the plan is expected to launch by the end of the year, enabling settlement of tokenized money-market funds.

Sandy Kaul, Head of Innovation at Franklin Templeton, said, “With growing interest in tokenized financial products, we look forward to collaborating with a wider range of distributors, including traditional institutions and Web3-native platforms, to accelerate the momentum of the tokenization revolution and further shape the future of investing.”

Building global links through tokenization

As part of its Fintech 2030 push, the HKMA is expanding its blockchain efforts globally.

According to a report from SCMP, Yue added, “Banks can use tokenized deposits to settle these funds, [and] regarding the settlement among banks, we WOULD also like them to use the central bank digital currency for settlements.” He also said the HKMA is working with the central banks of Brazil and Thailand to use blockchain and tokenization to accelerate and make cross-border trade more accessible for small businesses.

Additionally, Franklin Templeton is working with HSBC and OSL Group, one of Hong Kong’s licensed VIRTUAL asset platforms, through the HKMA’s Project Ensemble, a sandbox testing environment for tokenized deposits and fund flows. HSBC said the collaboration could enable near-instant settlement between traditional and blockchain-based systems.

Globally, tokenization is surging. A report by Ripple and the Boston Consulting Group earlier this year estimated that the value of tokenized real-world assets could grow from about $36 billion today to $19 trillion by 2033.

Innovation for the future

The HKMA’s Fintech 2030 blueprint also lays out plans to strengthen cybersecurity, develop a unified AI infrastructure, and expand access to financial data. The authority said it will launch an AI strategy to promote responsible adoption across the banking sector and improve oversight through tools like the Responsible AI Toolkit and Project Noor, developed with the Bank for International Settlements.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po emphasized that Hong Kong’s approach must balance innovation with investor protection and financial stability. “While we encourage innovation, we must also ensure its real-world applicability and resilience,” Chan said at the Hong Kong Fintech Week conference.

With projects like Franklin Templeton’s tokenized fund paving the way, Hong Kong is stepping into a new era of digital finance, where blockchain and AI work together to shape the city’s future as a global fintech hub.

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