Franklin Templeton is setting up a standalone cryptocurrency division by acquiring 250 Digital, a firm spun off from venture capital outfit CoinFund earlier this year.

The $1.7 trillion asset manager is making its boldest digital-asset move yet, targeting pension and sovereign wealth funds.

What Franklin Templeton Is Building

The unit will operate under the name Franklin Crypto. Christopher Perkins and Seth Ginns, both former CoinFund executives, will run day-to-day operations. Sandy Kaul, who leads innovation at Franklin, will oversee the group.

Franklin has been in crypto since 2018 and currently employs more than 50 digital asset specialists. The firm already offers a bitcoin ETF and runs a tokenized money-market fund on Binance….