Franklin Templeton: Future Assets Will Live in Digital Wallets, Not Bank Accounts

At the Ondo Summit in New York on February 3, 2026, executives from the $1.6 trillion asset manager Franklin Templeton laid out a radical vision for the future of global finance.

Sandy Kaul, Head of Innovation, predicted that tokenized digital wallets will eventually hold the “totality” of an individual’s financial life, marking a shift from traditional account-based management to a “wallet-native” ecosystem.

This transition is already underway through Franklin Templeton’s proprietary blockchain platform, Benji, which the firm is now using to move beyond simple crypto products and into the “piping” of traditional stocks, bonds, and private funds.

The Death of the Traditional Bank Account?

Franklin Templeton’s thesis suggests that the current siloed system—where your stocks are at one brokerage, your savings in a bank, and your real estate in paper deeds—is becoming obsolete.

• Direct Representation: In the “wallet-native” future, every asset is represented as a token on a blockchain. This allows for instant collateralization, where you could potentially use your tokenized S&P 500 holdings to secure a micro-loan in seconds.
• Operational Reality: Executives from Fidelity, State Street, and WisdomTree joined the summit to confirm that tokenization has graduated from “proof of concept” to “real infrastructure.”
• Massive Cost Savings: The firm reported that public blockchain record-keeping is “significantly” cheaper than legacy systems. Recent industry data shows that shifting to these modern “pipes” can reduce total processing costs by as much as 82%.

Franklin Templeton’s Digital ETF Snapshot

To facilitate this world where “everything is a token,” Franklin Templeton has been aggressively launching spot digital asset ETFs. While the market has faced a “crypto winter” in early 2026, the firm’s long-term conviction remains reflected in its growing product suite.

2026: The Year of “Creative” Tokenization

CEO Jenny Johnson highlighted that 2026 will be the year institutional investors move past simple Bitcoin holdings and into “creative” tokenized vehicles. These products aim to democratize access to asset classes previously reserved for the ultra-wealthy, such as private equity and high-yield credit.

Roger Bayston, Head of Digital Assets, noted that the expansion of the Benji platform onto networks like BNB Chain, Solana, and Arbitrum allows the firm to reach hundreds of millions of existing wallet users globally. The goal is to make investing as seamless as sending a text message, removing the friction of “settlement days” and moving toward a world of real-time financial finality.

Key Takeaway for Investors

The message from the Ondo Summit is clear: the “piping” of the financial world is being replaced. For the average investor, this means your future “portfolio” won’t be a monthly statement from a bank, but a self-custodied digital wallet that tracks and manages your entire net worth in real-time.

As Franklin Templeton nears its goal of putting hundreds of billions of dollars “on-chain,” the distinction between “crypto” and “finance” is effectively disappearing.

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