Franklin Templeton and Ondo launch 24/7 crypto wallet token trading ETFs
Franklin Templeton and Ondo launch tokenized ETFs that trade 24/7 directly from crypto wallets, giving non-US investors round-the-clock access to US stocks, bonds and gold.
Summary
- Franklin Templeton and Ondo Finance announced token ETFs on March 25 that can be traded directly within crypto wallets around the clock, bypassing traditional trading accounts.
- The product range includes US equities, fixed income, and gold, with initial releases across Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Latin America.
- The US launch remains subject to legal clarification regarding the on-chain distribution of registered currencies.
Franklin Templeton is partnering with Ondo Finance to offer tokenized versions of its ETFs that can be traded 24/7 directly from crypto wallets, the company announced Wednesday in a move that does away with the broker accounts and fixed trading hours that have defined fund investing for decades. According to Bloomberg, products include US equities, fixed income, and gold, with initial releases targeting investors in Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Latin America.
Franklin Templeton, which manages more than $1.6 trillion in assets, said the launch of the US market will depend on more clarity about how third parties can distribute funds registered on the chain. The asset manager has been gradually building the on-chain infrastructure since 2021, when it launched the world’s first registered blockchain-integrated fund in the US, and since then has expanded networks including Stellar, Polygon, and Arbitrum. In a previous article on crypto.news, Sandy Kaul, Head of Innovation at Franklin Templeton, said that digital wallets with tokens will eventually hold the “total value” of a person’s financial life — a thesis that this latest product launch is getting closer to the truth.
Ondo Finance, on the other hand, brings a rapidly expanding distribution network. The platform has surpassed $2.5 billion in locked value and exceeded $12 billion in cumulative trading volume since its launch in September 2025, listing more than 250 token shares and ETFs across Ethereum, Solana, and the BNB Chain. A previous crypto.news story detailed how Ondo’s Nexus plan has already expanded Treasury token funding to include Franklin Templeton alongside BlackRock and PayPal.
The choice to prioritize non-US markets first reflects both the regulatory environment and the existing infrastructure. Ondo has received regulatory passport approval from the Liechtenstein authorities, giving it access to more than 30 countries in the European Economic Area. That framework is already in place – in February 2026, Ondo partnered with Blockchain.com to make 200+ US token stocks and ETFs available through the Blockchain.com DeFi wallet to eligible EEA users. Binance and MetaMask have also combined Ondo token offerings, with Binance reviving token trading through its Alpha program and MetaMask allowing eligible non-US users to access Ondo assets from mobile wallets.
Franklin Templeton’s latest move comes after accelerating the institution’s tokenization. The tokenized real estate market has surpassed $22 billion worldwide, with tokenized Treasuries alone surpassing $3 billion in total value by 2024. CEO Jenny Johnson has stated that 2026 will see increased institutional investment flow into token vehicles over Bitcoin holdings.
The products are designed to give investors outside of the consumer ecosystem – particularly in emerging markets – low-cost, round-the-clock access to US asset classes that have historically required intermediaries and banking infrastructure. In a previous crypto.news story, Franklin Templeton’s on-chain money market fund Arbitrum was laying the foundation for this type of multi-chain distribution. Wednesday’s announcement represents the clearest step yet to make that vision a commercial reality.
