Franklin Templeton, the traditional finance heavyweight with more than $1.7 trillion in assets under management, has agreed to buy 250 Digital, a spinoff from the venture firm CoinFund, to expand its crypto investment offering.

Following the closure of the deal, its new crypto arm will be named Franklin Crypto, with strategies focused on pensions, sovereign-wealth funds, and other institutional investors, according to a statement. The acquisition includes the 250 Digital investment team and all liquid cryptocurrency strategies previously run by CoinFund. Franklin Templeton said it will invest in the strategies as part of the agreement. However, the terms of the deal were not disclosed.

250 Digital spun off from CoinFund in January and is led by former CoinFund executives Christopher Perkins and Seth Ginns, who will now co-lead the new arm alongside Franklin Templeton Digital Assets investment veteran Tony Pecore, reporting to Head of Innovation Sandy Kaul.

"Crypto's institutional moment has arrived, and Franklin Crypto will help our global clients navigate this complex and rapidly evolving asset class by delivering the expertise, knowledge and digital asset products that meet their sophisticated investment needs," Perkins said in the statement.

Franklin already has a digital assets team of around 50 people, having first entered the crypto industry in 2018. It offers a tokenized money market fund (BENJI), launched in 2021, and was also among the first spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded fund issuers in the U.S. upon their respective launches in January and July 2024.

"Franklin Crypto will expand Franklin Templeton’s existing suite of crypto and blockchain VC investment offerings and will broaden the firm’s digital assets investment management platform," the firm said Wednesday.

"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," Kaul told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news. "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."

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The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, subject to the execution of definitive transaction agreements, client consents, and other customary closing conditions, the firm said, adding that it will incorporate BENJI tokens as payment consideration.

Updated throughout with additional details from Franklin Templeton.