This Wall Street Giant Bought Crypto Firm Despite Market Slump

Franklin Templeton has agreed to acquire a crypto spinoff from CoinFund, expanding its digital asset business. The deal comes as Bitcoin (BTC) remains well below its recent peak, with the broader market down roughly $2 trillion from highs. The move signals that institutional players are still building in crypto even as prices struggle.

A bet on institutional crypto demand

The acquisition centers on 250 Digital, a newly formed spinoff led by former CoinFund executives. After the deal closes, the unit will operate under the name Franklin Crypto, according to a Wall Street Journal report published on April 1.

The new arm will design crypto investment strategies for pensions, sovereign wealth funds, and other large institutions.

With more than $1.7 trillion in assets under its management, Franklin Templeton has been early compared to many traditional firms. It entered crypto back in 2018 and now runs a dedicated digital asset team of more than 50 people. It was also among the asset managers that launched spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. in 2024.

The firm has already been experimenting with blockchain-based products. Its tokenized money-market fund can be used as collateral on Binance, showing how traditional assets are starting to connect with crypto infrastructure.

The importance of timing

Meanwhile, crypto prices are still recovering from a sharp pullback, with Bitcoin down about 45% from its peak above $126,000. Indeed, the original crypto asset is currently trading at $66,694, down 2.7% on the day, 4.8% across the week, and 2.1% over the last month.

But Franklin Templeton is leaning in. Sandy Kaul, the firm’s head of innovation, said the recent selloff created an opening to move forward with the deal.

“This big selloff that we had in the crypto markets is creating a very unique opportunity that really made us all decide that this is the right time to pull the trigger. (…) Because I think that there’s going to be a lot of interest in creating more of a stable home for many of these top crypto trading talents.”

At the same time, sentiment around institutional adoption has shifted. Christopher Perkins, who will help lead the new unit, put it bluntly:

“Institutions of all flavors, there used to be reputational risk for being in this space. Now they have reputational risk for not being in the space. (…) My job is to build solutions for these clients.”

All things considered, it seems that Wall Street is starting to treat crypto as a permanent part of the financial system.