Key facts
- Franklin Templeton acquired 250 Digital and launched a new crypto unit, Franklin Crypto.
- Franklin Crypto will be led by former 250 Digital executives Christopher Perkins and Seth Ginns.
- Franklin Templeton's tokenized asset portfolio has grown to over $2.5 billion in the past year.
- Euro trading represents about 1% of Binance's spot volume.
- Greek regulators are reportedly preparing to reject Binance's licensing application.
- An exploit on a Taiko bridge protocol led to the loss of approximately $1.7 million.
Franklin Templeton has officially entered the digital asset space by acquiring crypto asset manager 250 Digital and establishing a new business unit named Franklin Crypto. This division will be spearheaded by former 250 Digital executives Christopher Perkins and Seth Ginns, alongside Franklin Templeton's own digital assets executive, Tony Pecore. The new unit will integrate 250 Digital's investment team and existing crypto strategies, signaling Franklin Templeton's commitment to expanding its digital asset offerings. This strategic move follows Franklin Templeton's recent collaborations, including a partnership with Binance to enable tokenized money market funds as collateral for crypto trading and work with Ondo Finance to broaden access to tokenized ETFs. The firm has also been active in the tokenized real-world assets market, growing its portfolio from approximately $768 million to over $2.5 billion in the past year.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency exchange Binance is navigating uncertainty regarding its future operations within the European Union, particularly under the new Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). Data from CryptoQuant indicates that Euro-denominated trading constitutes only about 1% of Binance's spot volume, suggesting a limited immediate impact from potential EU-specific setbacks. However, reports suggest that Greek regulators are preparing to reject Binance's licensing application, which could complicate its ability to serve EU residents as the transitional deadline for MiCA approaches on July 1.
In a separate development, the Ethereum layer-2 blockchain Taiko has advised its users to withdraw funds from the network's bridges following a security exploit. The attackers reportedly made off with approximately $1.7 million. Taiko confirmed a compromise of its "chain state verification mechanism," stating that the security of all bridges deployed on its network could no longer be guaranteed and urged immediate withdrawal of assets. Crypto security firm Blockaid identified a flaw in the Taiko bridge's validation of source signals, which allowed the attacker to retrieve fraudulent bridge messages and unauthorized assets from an ERC20 vault.