Bybit accepts Franklin Templeton tokenized funds as trading collateral

Franklin Templeton has partnered with Bybit on a program that lets institutional investors use tokenized shares of its money market funds as trading collateral, expanding their use beyond a simple buy-and-hold investment.

The companies announced Monday that eligible clients can pledge fund shares issued through Franklin Templeton’s Benji platform while the assets remain in off-exchange custody. In return, clients can access credit lines denominated in the USDT or USDC stablecoins to trade on Bybit without selling the fund shares or transferring them onto the exchange.

The arrangement allows institutions to keep earning yield on their money market fund holdings while using those assets to finance crypto trading.

Franklin Templeton and Bybit are also planning a tokenized investment product for wallet users on Bybit and the Mantle network, although they have not yet disclosed details.

The program comes as demand for tokenized money market funds has grown significantly, with the Bank for International Settlements valuing the market at more than $9 billion as of September 2025. 

Franklin Templeton’s Benji platform had $1.98 billion in assets under management as of April, although that figure has since declined to about $669 million, according to RWA.xyz data.

BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) is the largest tokenized money market fund at $2.2 billion and is accepted as collateral on Crypto.com and Deribit, while Binance allows institutional clients to use BUIDL as off-exchange collateral.

Related: Crypto Biz: Wall Street and crypto fight for the same turf