BNB Chain becomes the largest network for Franklin Templeton's Benji platform at $1.5bn
Franklin Templeton's Benji tokenization platform held $2.44bn in assets as of 18 July 2026, of which $1.5bn, or 61.7%, sat on BNB Chain, overtaking Stellar. BNB Chain balances rose 1,226% over the preceding month.
What happened
Data reported on 19 July 2026 showed Franklin Templeton's Benji Technology Platform holding $2.44bn in tokenized assets as of 18 July 2026. BNB Chain accounted for $1.5bn, or 61.71% of distributed assets, having risen 1,226% over the previous month and displaced Stellar as the leading network. Stellar held $573.4m and Ethereum $159.1m, with smaller balances on Base, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Polygon and Aptos. Franklin Templeton onboarded BNB Chain to the Benji platform in 2025; BNB Chain published its own announcement of the integration. The platform underpins BENJI, the first US-registered tokenized money market fund, which Franklin Templeton and the Stellar Development Foundation have operated for five years. Reporting notes the data does not separate new subscriptions from assets bridged between networks.
Why it matters
Network share for tokenized funds is a commercial variable, not a technical one: issuers place assets where distribution partners, market makers and collateral venues sit. A shift of this size in a month indicates that a single distribution relationship can move the majority of a multi-billion-dollar fund platform, which undercuts the assumption that tokenized money market funds will settle on one dominant chain. It also matters for collateral. Tokenized money market fund units are increasingly pledged in derivatives and lending markets, and the network they sit on determines which venues can accept them.
What is not settled
The share of the BNB Chain increase attributable to new subscriptions rather than cross-network transfers is not disclosed.
Institutions in this story
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Franklin Templeton
Asset manager
Manager of $1.68tn as of 31 March 2026, and the first large manager to put a US-registered mutual fund's share register on a public blockchain; its Benji suite held about $1.98bn as of 29 April 2026.
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BNB Chain
Network
The ecosystem of chains renamed from Binance Smart Chain in February 2022, which in July 2026 became the largest network for Franklin Templeton's Benji platform, holding $1.5bn, or 61.71% of distributed assets.
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Stellar Development Foundation
Protocol developer
Non-profit established in 2014 to support the Stellar network, funded from an endowment of roughly 15.5bn XLM rather than by shareholders, on a chain that is the official system of record for Franklin Templeton's BENJI.