Franklin Templeton has quietly shifted the bulk of its Benji platform assets to BNB Chain. The network now hosts about $1.5 billion — 61.7% of the $2.44 billion in total assets under management. Stellar holds roughly $573 million, while Ethereum accounts for $159 million.
Why BNB Chain won the settlement
Cost is the straightforward answer. BNB Chain's low transaction fees make it attractive for the kind of high-frequency, low-value settlement that institutional real-world asset (RWA) platforms need. For a fund like Benji, which handles tokenized money market shares, every basis point in fees adds up fast. Stellar has traditionally been a go-to chain for such use cases, but BNB Chain's throughput and fee structure appear to have tipped the scales.
Multi-chain, not single-chain
Franklin Templeton hasn't abandoned Ethereum or Stellar. The Benji platform remains multi-chain, and the three networks together cover about $2.23 billion in assets. The $159 million on Ethereum, while relatively small, still represents a meaningful presence on the largest smart-contract chain. The company's strategy seems to be: let the asset class pick the chain, not the other way around.
What this means for RWA settlement
The shift is a concrete sign that low-cost, high-throughput blockchains are competing seriously for institutional RWA settlement. It's no longer just a theoretical debate — the money is moving. BNB Chain's share of Benji assets is now more than double Stellar's and nearly ten times Ethereum's. That doesn't mean Ethereum's role is dying, but it does suggest that for tokenized cash equivalents, the cheapest gas wins.
The timing isn't great for the argument that only Ethereum can handle institutional-grade assets. If a major asset manager like Franklin Templeton is comfortable putting over $1.5 billion on BNB Chain, the narrative around chain-specific safety is shifting.
Franklin Templeton hasn't announced any plans to reduce its Ethereum or Stellar positions. But the current allocation speaks for itself. The next question is whether other asset managers follow the same path — and whether the chains that aren't cheap enough start to adapt.
