BlackRock BUIDL and Franklin Templeton BENJI: Two Models of Fund Tokenization
Research review: 27 October 2026
BlackRock's BUIDL and Franklin Templeton's BENJI are important reference points for institutional tokenization because both connect regulated investment products with blockchain-based records and transfer processes. Their significance is not simply that tokens exist on public networks.
The more useful question is how the investment product, authorised service providers, official shareholder records and investor obligations are assembled. These arrangements help distinguish deployable fund infrastructure from an unaffiliated token that merely tracks the price of a security.
BlackRock BUIDL: a tokenized institutional liquidity fund
BlackRock announced the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, known as BUIDL, in March 2024. The official launch materials describe a fund offering US dollar yield exposure to qualified investors, with issuance and investor access supported by Securitize.
The arrangement uses a public blockchain to represent fund interests, while legal issuance, investor onboarding, custody, fund administration and permitted transfers remain part of a controlled institutional operating model.
An institutional buyer should not equate a token balance with unrestricted direct access to the fund. Eligibility, subscription procedures, redemption arrangements and the appointed service providers continue to determine what the holder may do.
The March 2025 announcement of an additional BUIDL share class on Solana illustrates the move toward distribution across multiple public networks. It did not mean that legal fund claims became interchangeable with every token that can be bridged between networks.
Franklin Templeton BENJI: the recordkeeping architecture
Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund launched in 2021. Franklin Templeton's April 2026 materials described its five-year development as a US-registered money market fund using a public-blockchain-integrated official system of record for share ownership.
The fund's August 2026 prospectus provides more detailed operating evidence. Its transfer agent maintains the official ownership record through a proprietary blockchain-integrated system and retains control over record accuracy, permissions and correction functions.
This is a crucial distinction from an unrestricted bearer token. The token is part of a legally governed shareholder record, and the fund's investments, valuation and dealing policies remain subject to the relevant regulated fund structure.
The BENJI ecosystem also demonstrates how approved transfers and investor servicing can be extended without removing the transfer agent from the process.
Similar investment exposure does not mean identical rights
BUIDL and BENJI should be compared using their respective governing documents, not just network, ticker, yield or market size.
Fund structure, investor population, permitted wallets, transfer restrictions, subscription cutoffs, redemptions, custody arrangements and fee structures may differ. A product may support a blockchain transfer outside conventional business hours while its cash redemption is processed on a separate timetable.
For either product, investor eligibility and fund documents determine the applicable rights. Network availability does not create an unconditional claim to immediate cash.
What the examples actually prove
These fund arrangements demonstrate that blockchain-based records can be integrated into regulated investment administration, with meaningful responsibilities still held by asset managers and appointed service providers.
They do not establish that tokenization automatically reduces all settlement costs, replaces the banking system or generates a liquid secondary market for every fund share.
The institutional value proposition is narrower and more testable: reliable ownership records, authorised transfers, potentially more flexible settlement workflows and reduced reconciliation where infrastructure is genuinely integrated.
The next evaluation criteria
Asset managers considering a similar product should assess which operational steps are improved rather than treating a technology launch as a return-on-investment result.
Useful evidence includes the time required to onboard an eligible holder, accuracy of register reconciliation, automated distribution processing, transfer exceptions, investor servicing costs and the ability to use approved fund interests within collateral or treasury workflows.
The real signal from BUIDL and BENJI is an emerging model in which financial institutions adapt the full product operating stack to blockchain infrastructure. The strength of that model lies in combining innovation with enforceable fund rights and accountable intermediaries.
Official sources
- Securitize / BlackRock: Launch of BUIDL, March 2024
- Securitize / BlackRock: BUIDL Share Class Expansion, March 2025
- Franklin Templeton: Five Years of BENJI, April 2026
- Franklin Templeton: Franklin OnChain Fund Prospectus, August 2026
- IOSCO: Tokenization of Financial Assets, November 2025
This research compares documented operating arrangements and is not a recommendation to invest in either fund.