Investment Giant Franklin Templeton’s CEO Holds Bitcoin, Ether and Other Tokens in Her Portfolio: Report

Jenny Johnson added she believes a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) will be a better way of gaining BTC exposure as opposed to direct investment.

AccessTimeIconDec 4, 2023 at 12:52 p.m. UTC
Updated Mar 8, 2024 at 6:01 p.m. UTC

Jenny Johnson, the CEO of investment manager Franklin Templeton (BEN), said in an interview with Fortune that she holds bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), uniswap (UNI) and sushi (SUSHI) in her portfolio.

She said the investments are “small for [her] overall portfolio.”

  • What Do EigenLayer's Outflows of $2.3B Signal?
    00:57
    What Do EigenLayer's Outflows of $2.3B Signal?
  • What Do TradFi Crypto Moves Mean for Decentralization?
    04:20
    What Do TradFi Crypto Moves Mean for Decentralization?
  • Marathon Digital Buys $100M BTC; India's Special Task Force for Crypto-Related Drug Trafficking
    02:02
    Marathon Digital Buys $100M BTC; India's Special Task Force for Crypto-Related Drug Trafficking
  • Ether Slides as Grayscale's ETHE Outflows Ramp Up
    00:53
    Ether Slides as Grayscale's ETHE Outflows Ramp Up
  • “They’re all standard: ethereum, a little bitcoin, SushiSwap, Uniswap. I have a couple of different things like that,” she said. Johnson has spoken bullishly about the prospects of blockchain technology in disrupting the financial system but referred to bitcoin as a distraction” from this.

    “I can tell you, if bitcoin ever became so big that it became a threat to the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency, the U.S. would limit … the use of bitcoin,” she said at CoinDesk’s Consensus Festival in April this year. “Currencies are very important for governments … to manage their economies. They will not cede their currency to this concept of a global currency.”

    Johnson added that a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) would be a better way of gaining bitcoin exposure than direct investment.

    “But I think bitcoin has some challenges. It’s hard to anchor to any kind of investment thesis,” she said .” It tends to be a risk-on/risk-off type of asset. You just want to ensure clients are responsible in allocating bitcoin.”

    Franklin Templeton, which has around $1.5 trillion in assets under management, offers an OnChain U.S. Government Money Market Fund (FOBXX), supported on Stella and Ethereum layer 2 blockchain Polygon.

    The firm did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for further comment.

    Edited by Parikshit Mishra.



    Disclosure

    Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.

    CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. The Bullish group is majority-owned by Block.one; both companies have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive options in the Bullish group as part of their compensation.

    Jamie Crawley

    Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.