Franklin Templeton expands tokenized collateral services to Bybit
According to CoinDesk, Franklin Templeton has expanded its "Over-the-Counter Collateral Program" to Bybit, allowing users of the exchange to use their tokenized money market fund shares for cryptocurrency trading. Users can use the shares as collateral to borrow stablecoins USDT or USDC, while the underlying assets continue to generate returns. The relevant shares represent approximately $686 million in net assets.The underlying assets will not be transferred to Bybit but will be held off-chain by the regulated custody platform ByCustody, with their value mirrored in the Bybit trading environment, thereby generating returns while releasing trading liquidity. The shares are issued through the Benji technology platform, which is Franklin Templeton's proprietary blockchain-integrated record-keeping and transfer agency infrastructure, currently paying an annualized return of 3.7% based on the latest 7-day interest rate.This is not Franklin Templeton's first foray into over-the-counter collateral partnerships, as it has previously offered tokenized money market funds to Binance and OKX clients. Sandy Kaul, Head of Digital Assets and Innovation at Franklin Templeton, stated that investors can now use collateral more efficiently across major exchanges and earn returns from it, which is crucial for ecosystem growth. This expansion also reflects industry trends, with platforms like Crypto.com and Deribit allowing qualified users to use BlackRock's BUIDL fund as trading collateral.