$1.5 Trillion Asset Manager Franklin Templeton Eyeing Foray Into Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) Trades

Mutual fund behemoth Franklin Templeton is the latest to eye the burgeoning crypto industry.

Franklin Templeton Makes Crypto Hires

Franklin Templeton, the $1.5 trillion asset manager recently shared several job postings that indicate the mutual funds’ company might be pivoting toward the digital asset space.

The series of job postings hint that Franklin Templeton is staffing up to execute trades for the two leading cryptocurrencies, bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH).

The mutual fund firm posted two job openings earlier this week, one for a trader and the other for a researcher. According to the description, the hired individuals would join the “growing” investment team within Franklin Templeton’s Digital Assets Management division.

One of the job descriptions reads:

“We are looking for a Crypto Currency [sic] Trader to execute trades for several strategies using the largest, most liquid listed and tradable crypto assets (e.g., BTC, ETH, etc.).”

If the recent job postings are anything to go by, it would be Franklin Templeton’s first foray into the digital assets landscape, further cementing the narrative of crypto assets as a new and emerging class of investable assets.

The job openings reveal that the roles will be tasked with executing crypto strategies, developing relationships with blockchain developer communities, and fostering new crypto products for the company.

That being said, it is not yet clear if Franklin Templeton’s crypto hires would be directly involved with coin trading. The prospective hire should ideally possess experience in derivatives and futures markets which could be hinting at the firm’s interest in trading regulated bitcoin and ether contracts.

It must be recalled that this is not Franklin Templeton’s first interaction with the blossoming crypto industry.

As previously reported by BTCManager, the mutual funds giant had announced it would run a government debt fund to record the ownership of units in the fund on the Stellar blockchain.

Institutions Doubling Down on Crypto

Besides Franklin Templeton, various other financial institutions are pivoting toward the crypto economy.

BTCManager reported earlier this year how the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock is considering investing in BTC futures contracts via two of its regulated funds.