Franklin OnChain Institutional Liquidity Fund (iBENJI)

Research, firm shelf, model-client eligibility, and advisor selection are recorded separately. The scheduled date is the outside bound; new evidence can reopen the file sooner.

iBENJI is the token of Franklin Onchain Institutional Liquidity Fund Ltd., a private money fund that Franklin Advisers manages for institutions. It is not BENJI, the registered fund any client can buy for $20; it runs on the same contract code, and Franklin lists it beside BENJI on its contracts page. On 2026-09-24 there were 1.72 billion iBENJI at $1.00: 198 million on Ethereum and 1.52 billion on BNB Chain, a chain Ketju rejects. The fund is for qualified purchasers. Its only public statement of terms is a Form D filed on 29 May 2025: Rule 506(b), the section 3(c)(7) exclusion, and a $5 million minimum. That filing reports no sales and has never been amended, though the fund now holds $1.72 billion. No offering memorandum, fact sheet, or redemption term is public, and the Form D and rwa.xyz disagree on where the fund is organized. The assessment is adverse. Nothing in the fund suggests poor management; it is Franklin’s. But a client gains nothing from it that BENJI does not give under a prospectus, the terms cannot be read, most of the supply sits on a rejected chain, and the same three single keys that can replace BENJI’s code can replace this one’s.

Research triggers: events that reopen the assessment or shelf decision
• Franklin publishes the fund’s offering memorandum or a terms page, and it states the claim, the record keeper, and redemption terms
• The fund files a Form D amendment that reports its sales and investors
• ROLE_TOKEN_OWNER moves from single keys to a multisig with a delay on both chains
• Most of the supply moves to a chain Ketju approves

The research file

What the fund is

The Form D names the issuer Franklin Onchain Institutional Liquidity Fund Ltd., a corporation formed in 2024, with Franklin Advisers, Inc. as investment manager, Matthew Hinkle as director, and Franklin Distributors, LLC as placement agent. It gives Delaware as the jurisdiction; rwa.xyz calls the fund British Virgin Islands domiciled, which the “Ltd.” in its name fits better. rwa.xyz describes it as a money fund backed by government securities, cash, and repos at a $1.00 NAV, launched 25 March 2025, with a 0.50% management fee. Franklin itself has published no page, fact sheet, or memorandum for the fund. Its Benji contracts page lists the tokens, “iBENJI (Ethereum)” and “iBENJI (BNB Smart Chain),” with their module addresses, and nothing else.

Who may hold, and the Form D

The Form D claims Rule 506(b) and the Investment Company Act section 3(c)(7) exclusion, so any US holder must be a qualified purchaser, and states a $5,000,000 minimum. rwa.xyz lists non-US institutions and US qualified institutional buyers, $5 million to start and $100,000 after. The filing, dated before any sale, reports $0 sold and no investors, and EDGAR holds no amendment, though a continuing offering amends each year. On 2026-09-24 the two contracts held 1.72 billion shares across 44 holders by rwa.xyz’s count. Sales to non-US buyers under Regulation S need no Form D, which may explain the gap; no document says. Transfer, redemption, and record-keeping terms are not public.

Who controls the token

Both contracts run Franklin’s MoneyMarketFund code, the same family as BENJI. The verified source lets only authorized wallets hold and lets the Authorization module freeze a wallet. An admin can burn any balance, switch off all holder transfers, and mint shares; on Ethereum the Transfer Agent module adds adjustBalance and recoverAccount. The token’s upgrade is gated by ROLE_TOKEN_OWNER, and on both chains three plain addresses hold it, 0x42cc…a2d6, 0x64d4…23e6, and 0xb671…b24f: the same three that can upgrade BENJI. Each can replace the token’s code alone. On Ethereum a contract, 0x27d7…1ad6, also holds the role and the default admin role, and the authorization admin sits with the contract Franklin names as its MultiSig Module. The BSC module role holders were not read.

Where the supply sits

Eighty-eight percent of iBENJI, 1.52 billion shares, is on BNB Chain, which Ketju rejects for its small, Binance-aligned validator set. In February 2026 Franklin and Binance launched a program letting institutions post “Benji-issued tokenized money market fund shares” as off-exchange collateral for trading on Binance, held by Ceffu Custody FZE in Dubai. The release does not name the fund, but iBENJI is the Benji fund token on BNB Chain.

Comparison and decision

The comparison that decides is with BENJI, Franklin’s registered government money fund: same manager, same kind of assets, a prospectus, a named SEC-registered transfer agent, and a $20 minimum. iBENJI asks for $5 million and qualified-purchaser status, publishes no terms, reports its sales to the SEC as zero, and keeps most of its supply on a chain Ketju rejects. The one use Franklin has announced for Benji fund shares on BNB Chain is trading collateral on Binance, which an advisor’s client does not need. The assessment is adverse; the program stays research-only, and it is ineligible for model clients because they are not qualified purchasers.

Sources

The claims above trace to these. Where a number could not be independently verified, the thesis says so.

• SEC EDGAR: Franklin Onchain Institutional Liquidity Fund Ltd., Form D (2025-05-29) · primary · accessed 2026-09-24
  Supports: Delaware corporation, Rule 506(b), section 3(c)(7), $5,000,000 minimum, no sales reported, Franklin Advisers, Franklin Distributors
• Franklin Templeton Benji DevHub: contract addresses · primary · accessed 2026-09-24
  Supports: iBENJI on Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain, MultiSig Module address
• Franklin Templeton and Binance, Institutional Off-Exchange Collateral Program (2026-02-11) · primary · accessed 2026-09-24
  Supports: Binance collateral program, Ceffu custody in Dubai
• Verified iBENJI implementation MoneyMarketFund on Ethereum (Sourcify) · primary · accessed 2026-09-24
  Supports: upgrade gated by ROLE_TOKEN_OWNER, burnShares, disableERC20Transfer
• rwa.xyz: iBENJI · secondary · accessed 2026-09-24
  Supports: BVI domicile, investor classes, $5M and $100K minimums, 0.50% fee, 44 holders, launch date

Inherited controls

The research above describes the protocol layer. Every position also inherits the asset it holds and the chain it settles on. The most administered layer sets the position’s effective control grade; that is a control description, not a quality or suitability score.