Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson stated that traditional financial institutions are slow to adopt public blockchains, partly because blockchain technology will shrink existing models that rely on intermediary fees. Speaking at an industry event in Paris, she said that improved on-chain settlement efficiency will directly reduce the revenue streams for some banks and intermediaries.

Benji was used as a cost case study.

Johnson used the example of Benji, a tokenized money market fund, to illustrate the cost advantages of public blockchains. She stated that the old system cost approximately $1.30 per transaction when processing 50,000 transactions; after migrating to the Stellar blockchain, the operating cost was approximately $1.13.

She stated that traditional finance has long relied on closed infrastructure, but under pressure to reduce costs and improve efficiency, some institutions are beginning to shift towards public networks. Shortly before her remarks, Franklin Templeton announced a partnership with MoonPay, planning to allow institutional investors to switch between stablecoins and their tokenized money market funds via on-chain processes.

There are still places under regulatory trusteeship

Johnson also stated that while Bitcoin offers self-custody and enhanced privacy, this does not mean that most institutions and individual investors will abandon regulated custody. She believes that banks and custodians will continue to bear the responsibility of asset safekeeping and compliance in the digital asset market.

According to her, the further entry of institutional funds into digital assets still depends on whether a standardized, low-cost, compliant channel can be established to allow traditional fund products to more smoothly access on-chain infrastructure.

The asset management industry is facing a revenue revaluation.

This statement reflects the real contradictions facing the traditional asset management industry as it moves towards on-chain technology. On the one hand, tokenized funds, stablecoin settlements, and public blockchain networks can reduce operating costs and improve settlement efficiency; on the other hand, this will also weaken the fee income that some financial intermediaries have long relied on.

Johnson's assessment is that the direction of institutional funds migrating to digital assets has not changed, but in the future it is more likely to form a structure of "coexistence of on-chain operation and regulated custody" rather than a complete shift to individual self-custody.