About $150 million of new sgBENJI money-fund shares were issued this week, lifting the total on that network to roughly $200 million. Who owns them is not clear, and Franklin has not commented.
A large asset manager put $150 million of a tokenized fund onto the XRP Ledger this week. The details of where it went matter as much as the size.
Franklin Templeton issued about $150 million of new shares of sgBENJI, a tokenized money market fund, on the XRP Ledger, on-chain records show. That raised the number of shares on the network to nearly 193 million, worth about $200 million at the recorded price of $1.039 per share, from about 48 million before.
The records show two $75 million subscription receipts on Wednesday and two issuances of about 72.18 million shares each early Thursday, at 02:58 and 04:13 UTC.
One wallet
All of the new shares sit in a single wallet. That wallet shares the same eight signing addresses as Franklin's issuing account, and any two of them can approve a transaction. The tokens can be approved, frozen or recovered by Franklin.
It is not clear whether the wallet represents one investor, several clients held together, or a position managed by Franklin itself. Franklin has not commented on the issuance.
The fund is co-managed with Singapore's DBS, and eligible clients can swap sgBENJI for the RLUSD stablecoin.
Reading a tokenization headline
A fourfold increase sounds like a surge in demand. The structure suggests caution in drawing that conclusion. A single wallet controlled by the issuer's own signers could reflect one large institutional subscription, an omnibus account for many clients, or a treasury or liquidity position set up by the manager. Only the first would be clear evidence of new outside demand on the XRP Ledger.
The third possibility has a practical logic. A pool of tokenized fund shares on the same network as RLUSD could provide liquidity for clients who want to move between the two.
Part of a broader spread
The issuance follows JPMorgan Asset Management's move earlier this week to make money market funds available on Solana. Large managers are placing tokenized cash products on several blockchains at once, rather than concentrating on one.
XRP traded at $1.28 on Saturday morning, down about 2% since Friday afternoon, in line with the wider crypto market.
What to watch
Any statement from Franklin on the purpose of the issuance, whether shares move out of the single wallet to other holders, and further tokenized-fund launches on the XRP Ledger.