Avalanche’s AVAX token rose nearly 7% to around $25 following the announcement that major institutional firms – Grayscale and Franklin Templeton – were expanding their products into the blockchain network ecosystem.
The price increase has helped reverse the recent downward trend for AVAX, which has fallen 20% over the past month amid broader market stagnation. Despite the recovery, the token is still down 82% from its all-time high of over $145 in November 2021, according to CryptoSlate facts.
However, Avalanche continues to stand out among major blockchain networks and plays a crucial role in the adoption of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization through strategic partnerships.
AVAX Fund
On August 22, Grayscale announced the launch of the Avalanche Trust, a crypto investment fund that offers investors direct exposure to AVAX. The trust reflects Grayscale’s existing single-asset investment products and focuses exclusively on AVAX.
Grayscale Head of Product & Research Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary marked launching as a significant expansion of the company’s crypto offering.
She noted that Avalanche has been crucial in advancing RWA tokenization through the network’s unique “three-chain smart contract platform, designed to simultaneously optimize for scalability, network security and decentralization.”
Over the past month, Grayscale has broadened its product range and introduced new trusts for several cryptocurrencies, including the DeFi protocol MakerDAO, the decentralized AI project Bittensor, and the layer-1 blockchain network Sui.
Franklin Templeton expands to Avalanche
Similarly, leading asset manager Franklin Templeton has expanded its on-chain money market fund – Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX) – to the Avalanche network, according to an August 22 report. announcement.
The fund provides dividends from US Treasury yields while maintaining a stable price of $1 per share. Investors can purchase shares through the Benji Investments platform, where each BENJI token is equal to $1 worth of FOBXX shares.
Roger Bayston, Head of Digital Assets at Franklin Templeton, said:
“Bringing the Benji platform to the Avalanche Network further expands access to our first tokenized money market fund. We look forward to working with Avalanche’s vibrant developer community to bring new blockchain-enabled innovations to market.”
Launched in 2021, FOBXX became the first money market fund to use a public blockchain to record transactions and ownership. According to data from Dune Analytics, the fund is the second-largest U.S. securities tokenization platform, with a market capitalization of $420 million.