In September 2025, Ripple, DBS Bank, and Franklin Templeton signed a memorandum of understanding to bring tokenized money market funds onto the XRP Ledger, using Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin as the settlement asset. It’s a concrete example of what institutional tokenization actually looks like once it moves past the announcement stage.
What the deal actually does
Franklin Templeton’s sgBENJI token, which represents its Franklin OnChain U.S. Dollar Short-Term Money Market Fund, is now tradable against RLUSD directly on DBS Digital Exchange. That matters because it lets eligible institutional and accredited investors shift into a stable, yield-bearing position in minutes, 24 hours a day, instead of waiting for the multi-day settlement window that traditional money market fund transactions typically require. DBS also plans to explore using sgBENJI tokens as collateral for loans, likely through repo-style arrangements, which would let holders borrow against the position instead of selling it outright.
Why the rails matter as much as the token
The choice of the XRP Ledger isn’t incidental. It settles transactions in roughly three to five seconds with fees around $0.0002, which is a meaningful contrast to traditional repo and fund-settlement timelines measured in days. Franklin Templeton launched sgBENJI back in 2023 as one of the first blockchain-based U.S. money market funds, and this partnership extends its reach into DBS’s institutional client base.
Part of a broader pattern
This deal sits alongside similar moves from other major asset managers, including BlackRock’s tokenized fund and VanEck’s tokenized offering, all pointing toward the same trend: large financial institutions building regulated, on-chain versions of traditional products rather than waiting on the sidelines. Each of these products is effectively the same idea wrapped around a different ledger, an attempt to keep the safety and regulatory standing of a traditional fund while gaining the settlement speed of a blockchain.
What to actually watch
The detail worth tracking isn’t the announcement itself, it’s whether the collateral piece actually launches. Turning a yield-bearing token into usable collateral for a loan is what would make tokenized money market funds genuinely different from just a faster brokerage account, since it lets institutional holders access liquidity without ever selling the underlying position. As always, none of this is investment advice, and returns on any tokenized fund still depend on the underlying assets, in this case short-term government securities and cash instruments. Do your own research before treating any of it as a signal to act.
Educational only, not tax, legal, or investment advice. Check primary sources and speak with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.
