Franklin Templeton, Ondo Finance roll out 24/7 tokenized ETFs for direct wallet trading
Franklin Templeton has teamed up with Ondo Finance to launch tokenized versions of its exchange-traded funds that can be bought and sold around the clock directly from crypto wallets, opening continuous access to U.S. stocks, bonds, and gold for investors outside the United States.
Instead of routing trades through traditional brokerage accounts tied to fixed exchange hours, these new products are issued as on-chain tokens that represent shares of Franklin Templeton ETFs. Investors in eligible jurisdictions will be able to hold and trade them in self-custodied wallets the same way they interact with other digital assets, but with exposure to familiar real-world asset classes.
A global-first rollout beyond the U.S.
The initial push is aimed squarely at non-U.S. markets. According to details shared alongside the launch, the first wave of tokenized ETFs will cover U.S. equities, fixed income, and gold, with distribution focused on Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Latin America.
Franklin Templeton, which oversees more than $1.6 trillion in assets, has made clear that a U.S. rollout will have to wait for greater regulatory certainty. The key open question is how third parties will be allowed to distribute registered funds on public blockchains while staying compliant with securities rules. Until that framework is clarified, the firm is leaning into regions where regulatory pathways for tokenized securities are more developed or more predictable.
Franklin Templeton’s on-chain strategy reaches a new phase
This launch is not a one-off experiment but part of a broader, long-running on-chain strategy. Franklin Templeton began building blockchain-native infrastructure in 2021, when it introduced what it described as the first U.S.-registered mutual fund integrated with blockchain technology. Since then, it has extended its presence to multiple networks, including Stellar, Polygon, and Arbitrum, using them to handle fund share recordkeeping, settlement, and distribution.
Leadership at the firm has been explicit about the long-term vision: tokenized wallets as the central hub of a person’s financial life. In previous public comments, Franklin Templeton’s Head of Innovation, Sandy Kaul, has argued that in the future a single digital wallet could hold everything from cash and securities to loyalty points and alternative investments. The move to put ETF exposure directly into crypto wallets is a concrete step toward that idea, shifting traditional investment products into the same interface where many investors already manage digital assets.
Ondo Finance brings the distribution rails
Ondo Finance supplies the other half of the equation: a rapidly scaling tokenization and distribution platform. Since launching in September 2025, Ondo has crossed $2.5 billion in total value locked and facilitated more than $12 billion in cumulative trading volume. Its marketplace now lists more than 250 tokenized stocks and ETFs, available across major blockchains such as Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain.
Ondo’s earlier initiatives included expanding tokenized U.S. Treasury offerings, working with major asset managers and payments companies to bring short-term government debt on-chain. That infrastructure now becomes the backbone for distributing tokenized Franklin Templeton ETFs, plugging them into an ecosystem of crypto wallets, exchanges, and decentralized applications where investors are already active.
Regulatory passporting unlocks Europe and beyond
The decision to prioritize non-U.S. markets is not just strategic, but also regulatory. Ondo has obtained regulatory passporting from authorities in Liechtenstein, which allows the platform to distribute its products across more than 30 countries in the European Economic Area. This framework enables a consistent regulatory treatment of tokenized securities across multiple jurisdictions, rather than having to negotiate separate permissions country by country.
This passporting has already been put to work. In early 2026, Ondo partnered with a major crypto wallet provider to make more than 200 tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs available to eligible users in the EEA through a DeFi-compatible wallet. Other large players have followed: Binance has reintroduced tokenized stock trading via its Alpha program by integrating Ondo’s products, and MetaMask has enabled eligible non-U.S. users to access Ondo-issued tokenized assets via its mobile wallet.
By plugging Franklin Templeton’s ETFs into this network, the new partnership accelerates the migration of traditional securities into familiar crypto interfaces.
Tokenization momentum across institutional finance
The Franklin Templeton-Ondo initiative arrives amid a sharp rise in institutional tokenization efforts worldwide. The total value of tokenized real-world assets has climbed above $22 billion, with tokenized U.S. Treasuries alone surpassing $3 billion in total value locked by 2024. Large banks, asset managers, and fintech firms are piloting or deploying tokenized versions of bonds, money market instruments, private credit, and funds.
Franklin Templeton’s CEO, Jenny Johnson, has previously predicted that 2026 would mark a turning point, with institutions going beyond simple Bitcoin exposure and moving more aggressively into tokenized vehicles tied to traditional asset classes. The new tokenized ETF program is very much in line with that forecast: a scalable, regulated product that feels like a conventional fund but behaves like a 24/7 on-chain asset.
Expanding access for emerging markets and unbanked investors
A central promise of this initiative is improved access. In many emerging markets, access to U.S. securities has historically required multiple intermediaries: local brokers with ties to foreign banks, custodians, and correspondent banking channels. Minimum account sizes and documentation requirements have often made U.S. markets inaccessible to smaller savers.
By contrast, tokenized ETFs can be held in a self-custody wallet that may only require a smartphone and an internet connection. Fractionalization means investors don’t have to buy whole ETF shares; they can allocate small amounts that fit their budgets or savings patterns. For individuals who are already familiar with crypto trading but have been excluded from global equity or bond markets, this represents a bridge between decentralized finance and traditional investing.
Franklin Templeton had already tested this approach with an on-chain money market fund on Arbitrum, designed to support multi-chain distribution and micro-investments. The new ETFs extend that logic from cash-equivalents into broader asset classes, bringing equity, fixed income, and commodity exposure into the same programmable environment.
How 24/7 tokenized ETF trading changes investor behavior
One of the most significant shifts is the move from limited exchange hours to non-stop trading. Traditional ETFs are tethered to stock exchange schedules, with trades executed during market hours and, in some cases, limited after-hours activity. Tokenized ETFs, by contrast, can be traded at any time, with secondary liquidity provided via on-chain order books, automated market makers, or off-chain market makers linking traditional and crypto markets.
This has several potential implications:
– Continuous risk management: Investors can rebalance or exit positions in response to geopolitical events, macroeconomic data, or local currency shocks even when U.S. exchanges are closed.
– More flexible hedging: Traders in different time zones can use tokenized ETFs to hedge exposures without waiting for the next trading session.
– Price discovery dynamics: Over time, the relationship between on-chain token prices and underlying ETF prices will shape new arbitrage strategies, encouraging tighter integration between traditional and crypto markets.
For long-term investors, the benefit is less about high-frequency trading and more about convenience and inclusion: the ability to invest, rebalance, or withdraw on their own schedule, without needing to align with foreign market hours.
Technical and operational considerations
Although the user experience is framed as simple wallet-based trading, the underlying structure is complex. Each on-chain token must reliably represent a claim on the underlying ETF shares, with robust mechanisms for issuance, redemption, and reconciliation. Custodians and transfer agents play a crucial role in ensuring that the number of tokens in circulation always matches the number of fund shares held in custody.
Smart contracts govern key processes like:
– Minting and burning tokens when investors move between the fund’s traditional and tokenized channels
– Enforcing eligibility restrictions by jurisdiction or investor type
– Distributing dividends or interest income to token holders in a way that aligns with the ETF’s underlying cash flows
Because the tokens circulate on public blockchains, security audits, compliance checks, and operational safeguards are critical. Any flaws in contract design or custody processes could undermine trust, particularly when dealing with regulated funds.
What this means for traditional brokers and exchanges
The emergence of tokenized ETFs challenges long-standing assumptions about how fund distribution should work. If investors can access regulated funds directly through wallets, the role of traditional brokers may shift from gatekeepers to service providers offering advisory, tax optimization, and additional risk tools on top of open-access rails.
Exchanges may also face competitive pressure as secondary liquidity migrates to tokenized environments. That does not mean stock exchanges become obsolete; they remain central to price discovery and primary ETF listing. But secondary trading could become more fragmented and more global, with liquidity pools on multiple chains interacting with off-chain markets via market makers and arbitrage.
Traditional financial institutions that adapt quickly-by integrating tokenized assets into their platforms, or by providing compliant on- and off-ramps between legacy and blockchain systems-stand to benefit from this transition. Those that cling to purely account-based, time-limited models may find themselves losing volume to more flexible alternatives.
Risks, challenges, and open questions
Despite the upside, tokenized ETFs come with non-trivial risks and uncertainties:
– Regulatory ambiguity: Especially in the U.S., there is no fully settled framework for widespread on-chain distribution of registered funds through third parties. Sudden changes in regulation could affect availability or product design.
– Investor protection: Self-custody places responsibility on users. Lost keys, phishing attacks, or smart contract exploits could result in irreversible losses, raising questions about what protections can or should be implemented.
– Liquidity fragmentation: If tokenized ETFs trade across multiple chains and venues, liquidity could become scattered, potentially widening spreads and making price discovery less efficient at smaller scales.
– Operational complexity: Coordinating between custodians, transfer agents, blockchains, and distribution partners introduces operational risk that must be carefully managed.
Regulators and industry players will need to collaborate on standards for disclosure, reporting, and investor protection in this new environment, balancing innovation with stability and fairness.
The broader future of tokenized portfolios
The Franklin Templeton-Ondo collaboration offers a glimpse of a future in which most traditional instruments can be held in a single, programmable wallet. In such a model, a user might, from one interface:
– Hold tokenized ETFs, bonds, and cash-equivalents
– Borrow against those holdings in real time via smart contract-based credit lines
– Redeem tokenized fund shares instantly into stablecoins or fiat
– Automate portfolio rebalancing using pre-set rules or on-chain strategies
For financial advisors and wealth managers, tokenized ETFs open the door to lower operational overhead and greater product flexibility. Portfolios can be adjusted in smaller increments, across more markets, with more granular control over costs and timing. For younger, digitally native investors, the convergence of crypto and traditional assets into a single environment could normalize investing as a daily, intuitive activity rather than an occasional interaction with a brokerage account.
A pivotal step in mainstream tokenization
By putting established, large-scale ETFs into crypto wallets with 24/7 trading, Franklin Templeton and Ondo Finance are testing whether tokenization can move from pilot projects and niche products into the core of mainstream asset management. The experiment stretches across technology, regulation, and market structure, but its logic is straightforward: if investors already trust ETFs and are comfortable with crypto wallets, combining the two can lower barriers and modernize market access.
If the model succeeds and regulators continue to open space for compliant tokenized distribution, similar offerings from other global asset managers are likely to follow. Over time, that could shift the default assumption from “funds live in brokerage accounts” to “funds live on-chain,” with wallets acting as the new universal investor portal.