Franklin Templeton and Ondo are launching tokenized ETFs that trade 24/7 directly in crypto wallets, giving non-U.S. investors round-the-clock access to U.S. stocks, bonds and gold.
Summary
- Franklin Templeton and Ondo Finance announced tokenized ETFs on March 25 that can be traded directly inside crypto wallets around the clock, bypassing traditional brokerage accounts.
- The product suite spans U.S. equities, fixed income, and gold, with an initial rollout across Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Latin America.
- A U.S. launch remains contingent on regulatory clarity around on-chain distribution of registered funds.
Franklin Templeton is partnering with Ondo Finance to offer tokenized versions of its ETFs tradeable 24/7 directly from crypto wallets, the firm announced on Wednesday in a move that sidesteps the brokerage accounts and fixed trading hours that have defined fund investing for decades. According to Bloomberg, the products span U.S. equities, fixed income, and gold, with an initial rollout targeted at investors in Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Latin America.
Franklin Templeton, which manages more than $1.6 trillion in assets, said the U.S. market launch will depend on further regulatory clarity around how third parties can distribute registered funds on-chain. The asset manager has been steadily building its on-chain infrastructure since 2021, when it launched the world’s first blockchain-integrated U.S.-registered mutual fund, and has since expanded to networks including Stellar, Polygon, and Arbitrum. In a previous crypto.news story, Sandy Kaul, Head of Innovation at Franklin Templeton, stated that tokenized digital wallets will eventually hold the “totality” of an individual’s financial life — a thesis this latest product launch moves materially closer to reality.
Ondo Finance, for its part, brings a distribution network that has scaled rapidly. The platform crossed $2.5 billion in total value locked and surpassed $12 billion in cumulative trading volume since launching in September 2025, listing more than 250 tokenized stocks and ETFs across Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain. A previous crypto.news story detailed how Ondo’s Nexus initiative already expanded tokenized Treasury backing to include Franklin Templeton alongside BlackRock and PayPal.
The choice to prioritize non-U.S. markets first reflects both the regulatory landscape and existing infrastructure. Ondo secured regulatory passporting from Liechtenstein authorities, giving it access to over 30 European Economic Area countries. That framework is already active — in February 2026, Ondo partnered with Blockchain.com to make 200+ tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs available via the Blockchain.com DeFi wallet to eligible EEA users. Binance and MetaMask have also integrated Ondo’s tokenized offerings, with Binance reviving tokenized stock trading through its Alpha program and MetaMask enabling eligible non-U.S. users to access Ondo assets from mobile wallets.
Franklin Templeton’s latest move lands against a backdrop of accelerating institutional tokenization. The tokenized real-world asset market has exceeded $22 billion globally, with tokenized Treasuries alone surpassing $3 billion in total value locked by 2024. CEO Jenny Johnson has stated that 2026 would see increased institutional investment flowing into tokenized vehicles beyond simple Bitcoin holdings.
The products are designed to give investors outside traditional brokerage ecosystems — particularly in emerging markets — fractional, around-the-clock access to U.S. asset classes that have historically required intermediaries and banking infrastructure. In a previous crypto.news story, Franklin Templeton’s on-chain money market fund on Arbitrum was already laying the groundwork for this kind of multi-chain distribution. Wednesday’s announcement represents the clearest step yet toward making that vision a commercial reality.
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