Franklin Templeton CEO discusses Bitcoin investments

The head of the $1.5 trillion asset manager Franklin Templeton, Jenny Johnson, has personal investments in cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. She said this in an interview with Fortune.

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She also owns governance tokens for Uniswap, SushiSwap and a few similar ones.

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However, she described her holdings in digital assets as modest relative to her overall portfolio.

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Regarding non-fungible tokens, the CEO noted that she prefers investments that are based on financial returns. At the same time, she acknowledged some potential for profit in collectible assets.

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“There are some things in NFTs that resemble art. If two people like it, they will find a market price for it. So there will be opportunities in this space. Not everyone will succeed, but some will,” Johnson said.

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In September, the company led by her filed an application with the SEC to register a spot bitcoin ETF. Franklin Templeton joined other traditional market players in the race for Bitcoin ETFs. On July 14, the SEC took up for consideration applications from BlackRock, VanEck, Fidelity Investments, Invesco and WisdomTree.

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“I think it’s obvious that there is demand from investors for Bitcoin, and I believe that a spot ETF is the best way to gain access to the asset,” Johnson said.

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She declined to forecast a timeline for regulatory approval. Johnson said the SEC “is trying to find the best approach and protect investors.” The Commission will decide “in due course,” she said.

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Regarding the company’s interest in new technologies such as blockchain or AI, she noted that they see innovative opportunities to meet client demand. A tokenized U.S. money market fund launched by Franklin Templeton in 2021 attracted $270 million.

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In Johnson’s view, blockchain can “democratize private markets.”

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“This happens because the technology eliminates the costs associated with processing transactions. And if you can reduce those losses, it becomes easier to securitize or fractionalize ownership of assets that would be too difficult to account for from an operational standpoint,” she explained.

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In 2022, Franklin Templeton launched an ETF focused on metaverses.