Bybit, Franklin Templeton Let Institutions Trade Against Tokenised Money Fund Shares Held Off-Exchange

What happened

Bybit and Franklin Templeton have partnered to let institutions trade against tokenised money fund shares held off the exchange. Bybit also offers a tokenised wealth product on Mantle.

Confirmed

Global impact / market context

This lets institutions earn yield on money fund shares while using them as collateral for trades, potentially freeing up cash and increasing trading activity without the exchange holding the assets.

Analyst inference

Crypto exchanges are competing to offer yield-bearing collateral that stays off their own balance sheets, following Franklin Templeton's earlier programme with Binance and its move into Mantle-based products.

Analyst inference

What to watch

1. Franklin Templeton launched a similar programme with Binance in February, so Bybit's deal is a repeat of that existing structure. Confirmed
2. The partnership extends to a tokenised wealth product on Mantle, which means the MNT token could gain uses beyond its current role. Proposed
3. If institutions adopt this model, demand for tokenised money fund shares could rise, shifting how exchanges hold collateral and report balances. Analyst inference

Affected assets

• MNT — Mantle

Evidence

• blockhead.co