Franklin Templeton is building out a dedicated active crypto arm, Franklin Crypto, aimed at institutional allocators. The deal brings in the 250 Digital team and all liquid crypto strategies it ran after spinning out of CoinFund earlier this year.

Christopher Perkins will lead the new division, with 250 Digital CIO Seth Ginns keeping the CIO role. Terms were not disclosed, though part of the consideration is being paid in BENJI, the token tied to Franklin's on-chain money-market fund.

With Franklin Crypto, one of the world's largest asset managers now runs an in-house active crypto desk built for institutions, not just an ETF wrapper.