Key Takeaways
- • Franklin Templeton and Binance launched a live institutional off-exchange collateral program enabling eligible clients to use tokenized money market fund shares issued via Benji Technology Platform as trading collateral on Binance, effective February 11, 2026.
- • The program addresses a structural pain point for institutional traders by allowing yield-bearing, regulated money market fund assets to support trading activity without requiring assets to be deposited on-exchange, reducing counterparty risk and custody exposure.
- • Tokenized fund shares are mirrored within Binance's trading environment while remaining held in regulated off-exchange custody via Ceffu, Binance's custody partner, preserving both yield generation and regulatory protections for institutional participants.
- • Roger Bayston, Head of Digital Assets at Franklin Templeton, framed the initiative as operationalizing the Benji platform's core design principle: enabling institutions to deploy assets across digital markets while maintaining traditional regulatory safeguards and custody standards.
- • The partnership builds on Franklin Templeton and Binance's 2025 collaboration, positioning tokenized traditional assets as a bridge between legacy finance and digital trading infrastructure at institutional scale.
Summary
Franklin Templeton and Binance announced the launch of a new institutional off-exchange collateral program on February 11, 2026, now live for eligible clients. The program enables institutional traders to use tokenized money market fund shares—issued through Franklin Templeton's Benji Technology Platform—as collateral when trading on Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and users.
The core innovation addresses a longstanding operational constraint for institutional market participants: the ability to deploy yield-bearing, regulated assets into digital trading environments without surrendering custody or regulatory oversight. Under the traditional model, institutional traders must deposit collateral directly onto exchange infrastructure, creating counterparty exposure and interrupting yield generation. The new program decouples these functions. Tokenized fund shares issued by Benji are mirrored within Binance's trading environment for margin and collateral purposes, while the underlying assets themselves remain held off-exchange in regulated custody through Ceffu, Binance's designated custody layer. This architecture preserves both capital efficiency—institutional participants continue earning yield on money market fund holdings—and risk reduction through third-party regulated custody separation.
According to Roger Bayston, Head of Digital Assets at Franklin Templeton, the initiative represents a practical extension of the Benji platform's institutional mandate. "Since partnering in 2025, our work with Binance has focused on making digital finance actually work for institutions," Bayston stated. "Our off-exchange collateral program is just that: letting clients easily put their assets to work in regulated custody while safely earning yield in new ways." The program operationalizes the stated design principle of the Benji platform—enabling institutions to participate in digital markets without hedging on custody, liquidity, or regulatory protections.
The collaboration between Franklin Templeton and Binance, which initiated in 2025, has centered on scaling tokenized traditional assets within institutional digital trading workflows. This off-exchange collateral model represents a significant evolution in how regulated asset managers and cryptocurrency exchanges jointly serve institutional capital, positioning tokenized money market funds as a core collateral bridge between traditional finance infrastructure and digital market participation.
The core innovation addresses a longstanding operational constraint for institutional market participants: the ability to deploy yield-bearing, regulated assets into digital trading environments without surrendering custody or regulatory oversight. Under the traditional model, institutional traders must deposit collateral directly onto exchange infrastructure, creating counterparty exposure and interrupting yield generation. The new program decouples these functions. Tokenized fund shares issued by Benji are mirrored within Binance's trading environment for margin and collateral purposes, while the underlying assets themselves remain held off-exchange in regulated custody through Ceffu, Binance's designated custody layer. This architecture preserves both capital efficiency—institutional participants continue earning yield on money market fund holdings—and risk reduction through third-party regulated custody separation.
According to Roger Bayston, Head of Digital Assets at Franklin Templeton, the initiative represents a practical extension of the Benji platform's institutional mandate. "Since partnering in 2025, our work with Binance has focused on making digital finance actually work for institutions," Bayston stated. "Our off-exchange collateral program is just that: letting clients easily put their assets to work in regulated custody while safely earning yield in new ways." The program operationalizes the stated design principle of the Benji platform—enabling institutions to participate in digital markets without hedging on custody, liquidity, or regulatory protections.
The collaboration between Franklin Templeton and Binance, which initiated in 2025, has centered on scaling tokenized traditional assets within institutional digital trading workflows. This off-exchange collateral model represents a significant evolution in how regulated asset managers and cryptocurrency exchanges jointly serve institutional capital, positioning tokenized money market funds as a core collateral bridge between traditional finance infrastructure and digital market participation.
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