Franklin Templeton plans to acquire 250 Digital, an active cryptocurrency investment management firm spun out of venture firm CoinFund in January, creating a new division called Franklin Crypto. The deal will use BENJI tokens, shares of Franklin Templeton’s pioneering tokenized money market fund, as part of the acquisition consideration, in what appears to be amongst the first uses of tokenized fund shares in an M&A transaction.

The acquisition brings crypto industry veterans Christopher Perkins and Seth Ginns to the $1.7 trillion asset manager. Perkins, who will head the new Franklin Crypto division, spent 13 years at Citi where he rose to Global Co-Head of Futures, Clearing…