In May 2026, Franklin Templeton and the Stellar network mark a significant milestone: five years since the launch of the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund, better known by its ticker symbol BENJI. It was the first U.S.-registered fund to use a public blockchain for processing transactions and recording share ownership — and it chose Stellar.

What Is BENJI?

BENJI is a tokenized money market fund that holds U.S. government securities. Each share of the fund is represented as a token on the Stellar blockchain, making it one of the earliest and most prominent examples of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization by a major financial institution.

Key facts about BENJI:

Why Stellar?

Franklin Templeton's decision to build on Stellar was deliberate. The network's characteristics aligned with the requirements of regulated financial products:

1. Low and Predictable Fees

Stellar transactions cost a fraction of a cent. For a money market fund processing thousands of share transfers daily, this is critical. Ethereum gas fees would make small-denomination transfers economically impractical.

2. Fast Settlement

Stellar ledgers close every 5-6 seconds with finality. There are no reorgs, no waiting for confirmations. For a financial product where investors expect near-instant settlement, this matters.

3. Regulatory Compatibility

Stellar's built-in compliance features — including authorization flags on assets and clawback capabilities — allow issuers to maintain the regulatory controls required for registered securities.

4. Network Stability

Over five years, Stellar has maintained 99.99% uptime. For a fund that needs to process transactions every business day, network reliability is non-negotiable.

The Broader RWA Tokenization Movement

BENJI was early, but it was not alone for long. The five years since its launch have seen an explosion of tokenized real-world assets on Stellar and other blockchains:

The total tokenized RWA market has grown from under $1 billion when BENJI launched to over $30 billion across all chains in 2026.

What Five Years of BENJI Proves

Institutional Blockchain Adoption Is Real

A $1.5 trillion asset manager running a regulated fund on a public blockchain for five years is not an experiment. It is a production deployment that has processed millions of transactions and operated through multiple market cycles.

Stellar Works for Financial Infrastructure

The network has handled BENJI's requirements without incident for half a decade. The low fees, fast settlement, and compliance features that made Stellar attractive in 2021 remain its core strengths.

Tokenization Is Not a Fad

BENJI's five-year track record demonstrates that tokenized funds are not a novelty — they are a structural improvement in how financial products can operate. On-chain settlement, transparent record-keeping, and programmable compliance are genuine advantages.

What Comes Next

The next phase of RWA tokenization on Stellar is likely to include:

For Developers

If you are building in the RWA tokenization space, Stellar's infrastructure is mature and battle-tested. LumenQuery provides the API layer you need:

*Franklin Templeton's BENJI has proven that public blockchains can serve institutional finance. Build on the same network with LumenQuery — enterprise-grade Stellar infrastructure, starting free.*