Franklin Templeton has completed its acquisition of crypto asset manager 250 Digital and set up a dedicated crypto investment organization called Franklin Crypto.

Cointelegraph reported on June 22 that 250 Digital's investment team has been folded into the new unit as part of the deal.

Franklin Crypto will be jointly led by Christopher Perkins (크리스토퍼 퍼킨스) and Seth Ginns (세스 긴스), both from 250 Digital, and Tony Peccore (토니 페코어), a Franklin Templeton digital assets executive. Franklin Templeton plans to use the unit to provide actively managed crypto investment strategies to institutional investors.

The acquisition also expanded Franklin Templeton's digital assets business. Franklin Templeton has already operated dedicated teams for digital asset research, portfolio construction and institutional risk management, and it has added a crypto investment division.

Franklin Templeton has been accelerating the expansion of its digital assets business this year. In February, it worked with Binance to introduce a system that allows institutional investors to use tokenised money market fund shares as collateral for crypto trading. In March, it agreed with Ondo Finance to offer tokenised exchange-traded funds on a blockchain network. Last week, it also proposed 2 ETFs that reinvest stock dividends into bitcoin-linked investments.