BENJI is the onchain share token of the Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX), a US-registered mutual fund managed by Franklin Templeton. As of Q1 2026, the fund holds roughly $828 million in assets under management and operates across eight public blockchains: Stellar, Polygon, Arbitrum, Aptos, Avalanche, Base, Solana, and Ethereum. FOBXX was the first US-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain as its system of record (Franklin Templeton fund page).
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This article breaks down what BENJI is, how the FOBXX share-token model works, where BENJI is deployed across chains, who can hold it, and how it compares with peer tokenized money market funds like BUIDL and USYC.
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BENJI is the public-blockchain share-class token of FOBXX, Franklin Templeton's US government money market mutual fund. Each BENJI token represents one share of the fund, which invests in US Treasury securities, repos, and cash. FOBXX is registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and overseen by the SEC, making BENJI a regulated security wrapped in a transferable token.
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Franklin Templeton launched FOBXX in 2021 and registered it with the US Securities and Exchange Commission as an open-end money market fund. The blockchain-based record system tracks share ownership instead of a traditional transfer agent ledger, with each BENJI token serving as a one-to-one representation of a fund share. The fund's filings, including its 497K prospectus updates, are listed on SEC EDGAR (SEC filings for FOBXX).
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The token name BENJI references the $100 bill nickname. The fund's investment objective, per its prospectus, is high current income consistent with preserving capital and maintaining liquidity, with at least 99.5% of assets in US government securities, cash, and repos collateralized by those securities.
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FOBXX's portfolio composition shifts with Federal Reserve policy and Treasury issuance, but the 99.5% government-securities floor is structural. Money market funds organized under Rule 2a-7 must hold securities with weighted average maturity of 60 days or less and weighted average life of 120 days or less. That keeps duration risk near zero. The fund's yield therefore tracks short-end Treasury rates closely, moving up and down with the federal funds target range. Franklin Templeton's N-1A registration filings outline these constraints in detail.
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BENJI works by mirroring traditional money market fund mechanics onchain. Investors purchase BENJI through Franklin Templeton's Benji Investments app or accredited channels, the fund invests subscription proceeds in US Treasuries, and yield is distributed to holders as additional BENJI tokens via a daily dividend posted directly to the holder's wallet.
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The yield model is share-count rebasing rather than price rebasing. The net asset value per share targets $1.00, consistent with money market fund accounting under SEC Rule 2a-7. Instead of the token's price climbing, the holder's BENJI balance grows. This pattern matches how a traditional money market fund credits accrued dividends as new shares to a brokerage account, but the credit lands on-chain as additional token units. Franklin Templeton publishes the fund's daily 7-day effective yield on its FOBXX product page.
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Subscriptions and redemptions settle in US dollars off-chain through the Benji Investments app or institutional channels. The blockchain layer carries the share record. Franklin Templeton's transfer agent reconciles onchain balances daily with the official shareholder register, a hybrid model the firm has described in regulatory filings as combining a traditional transfer agent with a public-blockchain secondary record.
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The architectural significance of this model is that the public blockchain functions as a transfer agent system, not a custodian of the underlying Treasuries. The securities themselves sit with a qualified custodian under Investment Company Act rules. The chain records who owns which shares. This split lets Franklin Templeton claim the regulatory benefits of a traditional '40 Act structure while exposing the share record to public verification, automated transfer logic, and integration with onchain wallets and dapps that have been allowlisted by the transfer agent.
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Daily dividend posting happens by minting new BENJI tokens directly into each holder's allowlisted wallet. The amount mirrors the dividend per share declared by the fund for that business day, prorated by balance. Holders see their token balance increase each US trading day, with the increment matching the daily dividend rate. Weekends and holidays accrue and post on the next business day per standard money market accounting.
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BENJI is deployed on eight public blockchains as of Q1 2026: Stellar, Polygon, Arbitrum, Aptos, Avalanche, Base, Solana, and Ethereum. Stellar was the original deployment chain in 2021; the other seven were added in stages between 2023 and 2025 as Franklin Templeton expanded distribution to additional wallets, custodians, and institutional venues.
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Each chain hosts a separate BENJI token contract, with Franklin Templeton's transfer agent acting as the authoritative record across deployments. The fund's prospectus identifies the blockchain-based record system as a secondary register, with the firm's books and records serving as the primary source of truth in the event of any discrepancy.
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Chain choice does not change the underlying fund. Holders on Stellar and holders on Solana own shares in the same FOBXX pool, earn the same dividend, and have the same redemption rights. Franklin Templeton's chain selection criteria, as discussed in firm research, prioritize regulated custodian support, finality guarantees, and compliance tooling for transfer restrictions.
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Cross-chain movement of BENJI is not automatic at the protocol layer. To move BENJI from Polygon to Solana, a holder must coordinate with Franklin Templeton's transfer agent, which burns tokens on the origin chain and mints the equivalent on the destination chain after verifying both wallets are allowlisted. This differs from a freely bridgeable token like USDC. The compliance perimeter is the limiting factor: only allowlisted addresses on allowlisted chains can hold BENJI, and the transfer agent reconciles all movement before it settles.
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Stellar's role as the original deployment reflected the chain's compliance-asset focus and the relationship Franklin Templeton built with the Stellar Development Foundation in 2021. The subsequent expansion to EVM chains, Move chains, and Solana followed institutional demand from custodians and wallets that supported each ecosystem.
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BENJI is restricted to investors who have completed Franklin Templeton's KYC and AML onboarding through the Benji Investments app or an authorized institutional channel. The token uses an allowlist model: only wallets approved by Franklin Templeton's transfer agent can receive BENJI, and transfers between non-allowlisted addresses are blocked at the contract level.
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The retail entry point is the Benji Investments mobile app, available in select US states. Institutional holders access BENJI through Franklin Templeton's institutional distribution and custodial relationships. Eligibility, suitability checks, and tax reporting follow the same rules as any other US-registered mutual fund share class.
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Because FOBXX is a US-registered '40 Act fund, non-US investors face the same restrictions that apply to traditional US mutual funds. Franklin Templeton's documentation and SEC filings (N-1A registration on EDGAR) describe the eligible-investor scope. The token's compliance layer enforces these restrictions natively; an unauthorized transfer attempt fails at the chain level rather than at a downstream reconciliation step.
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BENJI competes with BlackRock's BUIDL, Hashnote's USYC, and Ondo's OUSG in the tokenized money market and short-Treasury segment. BENJI is the smaller of the largest four by AUM at roughly $828 million versus BUIDL near $2.5 billion and USYC around $3 billion, but it is the only one wrapping a US-registered '40 Act mutual fund rather than a private fund structure.
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The structural difference is material. BUIDL, OUSG, and USYC are private vehicles available to qualified purchasers or institutional accredited investors. FOBXX, the fund behind BENJI, is a public US-registered mutual fund. That registration brings disclosure requirements, retail-eligible suitability paths, and a different tax treatment for distributions, while also constraining how the fund can be marketed and to whom.
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Yield mechanics also differ. BENJI distributes daily via share-count rebasing in tokens. BUIDL distributes monthly via an airdrop of new BUIDL tokens. USYC accrues yield in the token price (non-rebasing). OUSG offers both rebasing (rOUSG) and non-rebasing variants. For an integrating builder or treasury, the yield-distribution shape often drives the choice as much as headline yield does.
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The investor-eligibility split is equally important. BUIDL, USYC, and OUSG require qualified purchaser status under Section 2(a)(51) of the Investment Company Act, which sets a $5 million investment threshold for natural persons. BENJI, through the Benji Investments app, accepts retail US investors who meet the same suitability standards as any other US-registered money market fund. That broadens the addressable holder base substantially, at the cost of a more constrained marketing and disclosure regime tied to '40 Act registration.
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On chain coverage, BENJI's eight chains is the broadest deployment in the segment as of Q1 2026, edging out BUIDL's seven and substantially ahead of USYC and OUSG. Coverage breadth matters for institutional builders selecting a tokenized money market for a specific chain integration, since the available custodian and wallet ecosystem on each chain varies considerably.
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BENJI's role in onchain treasury workflows is as a regulated, yield-bearing reserve asset for entities that need US-registered mutual fund structure rather than a private fund vehicle. Treasuries route idle stablecoin balances into BENJI for short-Treasury exposure, redeem back to USD or stablecoins when liquidity is needed, and rely on the daily dividend rebase as automatic yield accrual on the books.
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The integration pattern typically pairs BENJI with a custodian or wallet that handles KYC onboarding to Franklin Templeton's allowlist. Onchain, BENJI can move between approved wallets, post as collateral in permitted venues, and feed into reporting tools that read token balances directly. The fund's daily NAV and yield disclosures on Franklin Templeton's site (franklintempleton.com) feed into treasury reconciliation.
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For builders connecting stablecoin payment rails to yield-bearing reserves, the operational challenge is the offramp and onramp between USD subscriptions and the chain where BENJI sits. Eco Routes is the cross-chain stablecoin routing layer that institutional builders use to move USDC and USDT across the same chains BENJI supports, simplifying the path between a payment in stablecoins on one chain and a treasury allocation in BENJI on another.
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A practical pattern: a treasury that receives stablecoin payments on Base routes excess balances to a custodian wallet on Polygon or Stellar that holds BENJI. Daily dividends accrue automatically as additional BENJI tokens in that wallet. When operating cash is needed, the treasury redeems BENJI back to USD through Franklin Templeton's institutional channel, and uses Eco Routes to bring USDC back to whichever chain the operational accounts sit on. The Treasury exposure is fully regulated, the yield is automatic, and the chain-specific routing is abstracted from the treasury operator.
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The fund's '40 Act registration also matters for entities that have legal or auditor restrictions against holding private fund vehicles. Many corporates, foundations, and public agencies can hold mutual fund shares but cannot hold a Cayman or BVI private fund interest. BENJI is one of the only onchain options that fits within those restrictions, which is part of why Franklin Templeton positioned FOBXX on chain in the first place: to extend a regulated retail-eligible product into the onchain settlement environment.
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Sources and methodology. AUM figures sourced from rwa.xyz Q1 2026 snapshot. Chain coverage and fund mechanics verified against Franklin Templeton product disclosures and SEC EDGAR filings for FOBXX (CIK 0001782663). Comparable AUM for BUIDL, USYC, and OUSG from the same rwa.xyz snapshot. Figures refresh quarterly.
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