Franklin Templeton Launches Its OnChain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX) on Layer-1 Blockchain Solana

The move marks the latest expansion of FOBXX, which launched in 2021, to another blockchain.

Major US financial services firm Franklin Templeton has launched its OnChain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX) on layer-1 blockchain Solana (SOL), according to a Feb. 12 announcement.

The move marks the latest expansion of FOBXX, which launched in 2021, to another blockchain. The fund invests nearly 100% of its assets into U.S. government securities, cash and fully collateralized repurchase agreements with minimal credit risks.

As of Jan. 31, 2025, the fund had a total of $512 million in assets with a seven-day effective yield of 4.2%.

“With this development, Franklin Templeton is expanding its layer-1 blockchain footprint as Solana continues to grow its institutional participant ecosystem,” a representative from Franklin Templeton told Cointelegraph.

FOBXX is now available on several blockchains, including layer-1 blockchains Ethereum (ETH) and Avalanche (AVAX), Ethereum layer-2 blockchains Arbitrum, Base, Polygon (MATIC), Aptos (APT) and others. It is considered the first U.S. mutual fund to use blockchain technology for record-keeping and processing transactions, with one BENJI token equal to one share in the fund.

The launch of FOBXX on Solana comes hot on the heels of another tokenized institutional investment fund that recently debuted on the network.

On Feb. 7, Apollo Global Management, Inc. announced the launch of the Apollo Diversified Credit Securitize Fund, a securitized credit fund that is now available to be traded on the Solana decentralized exchange, Serum (SRM). The fund is designed to provide investors with broad exposure to Apollo’s diversified credit strategies.

Franklin Templeton's FOBXX launch on Solana is also significant given the blockchain’s growing institutional presence despite being known for memecoins.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, institutional investments in decentralized applications running on Solana rose 54% in Q3 of 2024 to a total of $173 million in applications. CoinShares also noted that more wealth managers and hedge funds were allocating to SOL in 2024.

The SOL token has bounced back from a tough bear market that saw its price sink to under $10 per coin after the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX. It has a 52-week high of $265.10 following the momentum from U.S. President Donald Trump’s memecoin launch on the network.