It was an extraordinarily exclusive group that gathered for lunch at Zurich’s Hotel Storchen in early June: the leaders of twelve prominent Swiss blockchain firms accepted the invitation from Jenny Johnson, CEO of U.S. asset manager Franklin Templeton. Johnson flew in from New York specifically for the meeting.

The key condition for the gathering: absolute confidentiality. There is no official memo or protocol. «It was an informal exchange among industry leaders,» emphasized Christian Leger, Head of Franklin Templeton Switzerland, in a statement to finews.com.

Main Topic: Asset Tokenization

Tokenization of assets was the central theme of the meeting.

Franklin Templeton is highly active in this field—both in building blockchain infrastructure and launching products.

In 2021, the company launched the world’s first investment fund using public blockchain technology for transaction processing. It maps a traditional investment product, in this case a money market fund, onto blockchain networks and issues digital tokens representing real fund shares. One share of the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX) equals one Benji token.

While Benji, the abbreviation for this fund, was created for U.S. investors, the firm launched a UCITS version of Benji in February this year. Again, the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FTOCF) was a first of its kind. It is the first fully tokenized UCITS product on a public blockchain. The company set up its own blockchain infrastructure in Luxembourg—the Benji platform—for this purpose.

Jenny Johnson Pushing Ahead

Since taking office in 2020, Johnson has been driving the topic of tokenization with determination. She believes this technology will fundamentally transform asset management within just a few years.

With around 50 in-house experts and the central Benji platform, Franklin Templeton is emerging as a strong player in the blockchain industry. The firm also serves as a node validator, meaning it participates in validating crypto transactions on 12 blockchains.

Additionally, it manages a venture capital fund investing in the blockchain ecosystem and offers advisory services for cryptocurrency investments.

Switzerland Takes a Leading Role

That the summit took place in Zurich is hardly surprising. Switzerland is regarded as one of the most advanced and deeply integrated markets for digital assets worldwide. It is home to international players such as Ethereum, Cosmos (Interchain Foundation), Solana, Aave, and 21Shares, and actively promotes collaboration within the Web3 sector. The market capitalization of the platforms based in Switzerland is estimated in the billions—just like the Bitcoin wealth held in the country.

Traditional and decentralized financial systems (TradFi and DeFi) are increasingly merging. While many Swiss banks initially approached digitalization hesitantly—incurring opportunity costs—they are now catching up: most are working on digital infrastructures, and some are already issuing tokenized products. Meanwhile, DeFi firms are cooperating more closely with traditional financial actors and expanding internationally—especially toward the Middle East and Asia.

Franklin Templeton operates globally at the intersection of TradFi and DeFi. After launching Benji in the U.S. and Europe, Singapore is next. In May, the company received approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to launch the Franklin OnChain U.S. Dollar Short-Term Money Market Fund—the first tokenized fund accessible to retail investors in Singapore.

Still Silent on Swiss Plans

And what are the concrete plans for Switzerland?

«We are not speaking publicly about concrete plans for Switzerland at this time,» says Christian Leger. «But tokenization is a long-term process. We're still in the early stages—and we’re pursuing it consistently. Switzerland will always play a central role in that.»