Franklin Templeton agrees to buy CoinFund spinoff to expand crypto investment offering: WSJ

TheBlock · 2026-04-01T12:04:26+00:00

Franklin Templeton is set to acquire 250 Digital to enhance its crypto investments. The new division, Franklin Crypto, will focus on serving institutional investors. Franklin has been active in the crypto space since 2018 and sees the current market downturn as a chance to grow.

TheBlock

2026-04-01 12:04:26

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Franklin Templeton, the traditional finance heavyweight with more than $1.7 trillion in assets under management, has reportedly agreed to buy 250 Digital, a spinoff from the venture firm CoinFund, to expand its crypto investment offering.

Following the closure of the deal, its new crypto arm will be named Franklin Crypto, with strategies focused on pensions, sovereign-wealth funds, and other institutional investors, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing Sandy Kaul, Franklin’s head of innovation. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

250 Digital spun off from CoinFund in January and is led by CoinFund executives Christopher Perkins and Seth Ginns. Franklin already has a digital assets team of around 50 people, having first entered the crypto industry in 2018. It offers a tokenized money market fund and was also among the first spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded fund issuers in the U.S. upon their respective launches in January and July 2024.

“This big selloff that we had in the crypto markets is creating a very unique opportunity that really made us all decide that this is the right time to pull the trigger,” Kaul told The Wall Street Journal. “Because I think that there’s going to be a lot of interest in creating more of a stable home for many of these top crypto trading talents.”

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The Block reached out to Franklin Templeton for comment.

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