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Franklin Templeton Brings Benji Token Collateral to Bybit

The deal lets eligible institutional clients use regulated, yield-bearing money-market fund shares held off-exchange as collateral to draw USDT or USDC credit lines.

Overview

  • The partnership, announced Sept. 28, 2026, links Franklin Templeton’s Benji platform with Bybit and custody provider ByCustody so eligible institutions can pledge BENJI-backed shares of the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund to access stablecoin credit lines.
  • BENJI tokens represent one share of FOBXX on a strict one-to-one basis and the underlying fund held about $686.64 million in net assets as of Aug. 31, 2026, allowing clients to keep earning the fund’s yield while using its value for trading credit.
  • Under the setup the actual fund shares remain off-exchange in regulated custody with their value mirrored into Bybit’s trading environment, which reduces the need to move assets onto the exchange and cuts counterparty and custody exposure.
  • The expansion follows an August 2026 SEC Division of Investment Management no-action letter that cleared the use of tokenized FOBXX and BENJI for cash and collateral management and builds on earlier Benji integrations with Binance and OKX.
  • Key operational details such as eligibility rules, collateral haircuts, credit limits, fees and liquidation mechanics have not been disclosed and the planned Mantle-based wallet product mentioned by the partners still has no launch date or public terms.