Franklin Templeton has agreed to acquire 250 Digital, a spinoff from venture firm CoinFund, to expand its cryptocurrency investment offerings for institutional clients. The traditional asset manager, known for mutual funds targeting individual investors, has assembled a 50-person digital assets team since entering crypto in 2018. The new crypto arm will be rebranded as Franklin Crypto.

Led by former CoinFund executives Christopher Perkins and Seth Ginns, 250 Digital will provide strategies for pensions, sovereign-wealth funds, and other institutional investors. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Franklin Templeton was among the first asset managers to launch U.S.-listed bitcoin ETFs in 2024 and has partnered with Binance to offer its tokenized money-market fund as collateral on the crypto exchange.

This move comes as traditional financial firms expand crypto offerings amid the Trump administration's support of digital assets. Bitcoin and other tokens reached record highs last fall before falling into a 45% slump from their peak above $126,000, with the broader digital asset market losing roughly $2 trillion in value.