Key Takeaways
- • Franklin Templeton's tokenized money market fund BENJI on the Stellar network reached $1.1 billion after a $200 million net inflow, per the RWA Foundation's report using Token Terminal data.
- • Stellar has displaced Ethereum as Franklin Templeton's second-largest digital asset venue, behind only BNB Chain.
- • Stellar leads the XRP Ledger on RWA metrics, with roughly ten times as many unique RWA token holders, hundreds of millions of dollars in monthly asset distribution versus $22 million, and $20.48 billion in monthly stablecoin transfers versus $9 million.
- • Spiko leads tokenized fund liquidity on Stellar at about $2 billion, with BENJI second and Ondo and Realiz each near $500 million.
- • A joint venture with the DTCC is expected by the first half of 2027 to allow traditional finance products to launch directly on-chain.
Summary
Franklin Templeton's tokenized money market fund BENJI on the Stellar network has crossed $1.1 billion in value following a $200 million net inflow, according to data compiled by the RWA Foundation using Token Terminal figures. The milestone makes Stellar the asset manager's second-largest venue for digital asset operations, behind BNB Chain and ahead of Ethereum. The surge included a last-minute $100 million addition to the fund just before the report was finalized, a timing that analysts at ZeusRWA, a platform tracking real-world asset liquidity, said caught them off guard.
The Stellar fund has become Franklin Templeton's largest real-world asset deployment outside BNB Chain. Real-world assets are traditional instruments, such as money market funds and short-term debt, issued as tokens on a blockchain. By contrast, Franklin Templeton's footprint on the XRP Ledger is confined to the sgBENJI fund, which holds about $200 million. Stellar and XRPL were both created by Jed McCaleb, but their institutional adoption has diverged sharply.
Liquidity on Stellar is concentrated among a few platforms. Spiko accounts for roughly half of the approximately $2 billion tokenized fund market on the network, while Ondo, which counts BlackRock among its backers, and Realiz each manage close to $500 million. The holder base and activity metrics also favor Stellar. It has roughly ten times as many unique RWA token holders as XRPL and monthly asset distribution in the hundreds of millions of dollars, compared with $22 million on the rival chain. The widest gap is in stablecoins: Stellar settles $20.48 billion in stablecoin transfers monthly, mostly for commercial payments, while XRPL's equivalent is $9 million, which the report suggests reflects tokens sitting idle in balances.
Stellar's momentum in the second half of 2026 has been supported by infrastructure integrations. Chainlink's price oracle service is now live on the network, and a joint venture with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, the central clearing and settlement utility for U.S. securities, is expected by the first half of 2027 to let traditional finance products launch directly on-chain. For Franklin Templeton, the milestone indicates that tokenized cash-management products can attract institutional capital at scale outside the largest public blockchains. Whether Stellar's lead over XRPL holds will depend partly on the DTCC venture meeting its 2027 timetable.
The Stellar fund has become Franklin Templeton's largest real-world asset deployment outside BNB Chain. Real-world assets are traditional instruments, such as money market funds and short-term debt, issued as tokens on a blockchain. By contrast, Franklin Templeton's footprint on the XRP Ledger is confined to the sgBENJI fund, which holds about $200 million. Stellar and XRPL were both created by Jed McCaleb, but their institutional adoption has diverged sharply.
Liquidity on Stellar is concentrated among a few platforms. Spiko accounts for roughly half of the approximately $2 billion tokenized fund market on the network, while Ondo, which counts BlackRock among its backers, and Realiz each manage close to $500 million. The holder base and activity metrics also favor Stellar. It has roughly ten times as many unique RWA token holders as XRPL and monthly asset distribution in the hundreds of millions of dollars, compared with $22 million on the rival chain. The widest gap is in stablecoins: Stellar settles $20.48 billion in stablecoin transfers monthly, mostly for commercial payments, while XRPL's equivalent is $9 million, which the report suggests reflects tokens sitting idle in balances.
Stellar's momentum in the second half of 2026 has been supported by infrastructure integrations. Chainlink's price oracle service is now live on the network, and a joint venture with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, the central clearing and settlement utility for U.S. securities, is expected by the first half of 2027 to let traditional finance products launch directly on-chain. For Franklin Templeton, the milestone indicates that tokenized cash-management products can attract institutional capital at scale outside the largest public blockchains. Whether Stellar's lead over XRPL holds will depend partly on the DTCC venture meeting its 2027 timetable.
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