Medad Holding and Franklin Templeton (Templeton International, Inc.,) have entered a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to form a new joint venture in the United Arab Emirates. Industry sources added that both firms have been exploring with regulators to originate a new tokenized digital asset from the UAE that aims to combine the yield-bearing component of a money market fund security with the ease of use and portability of a stablecoin.
The latest “yieldcoin” construct would offer investors superior use cases for cash and collateral payments and mark an innovative step forward in bringing together the traditional and new blockchain-based financial rails.
Mohammed Alshaiba Almazrouei, Chief Operating Officer, Medad Holding stated “Yieldcoins will combine the best of both worlds. It provides the medium of exchange, unit of account, and ease of use of a stablecoin with a potential for growth by being linked to interest-bearing assets. As such, the yieldcoin project should address a gap that currently exists in the market.”
Jenny Johnson, President & CEO, Franklin Templeton stated “We are excited to be partnering with Medad Holding in extending the use of the Benji infrastructure. Medad Holding has been at the forefront of digitizing the banking system just as Franklin Templeton has been the foremost innovator in tokenizing real-world assets on public blockchain. We see yieldcoins as an important new offering that will become a mainstay over time in the operation of the global financial market infrastructure.”
Industry sources added that the yieldcoin project will be housed under a new Web3 entity being set up by Medad Holding. This new entity will further enhance Medad Holding’s reputation for working at the cutting edge of emerging and digital businesses, leveraging the reach and network it has established around the world.
Infrastructure and servicing will be provided by Franklin Templeton via their BENJI tokenization suite – the same infrastructure that is currently used to administer Franklin Templeton’s U.S. Government OnChain Money Fund (FOBXX) – the only tokenized fund in the world where the official set of transaction records are maintained on public blockchains.
Industry sources added that Franklin Templeton Digital Assets (FTDA) has been active in the digital asset ecosystem since 2018, building blockchain-based technology solutions, developing a range of investment strategies, and running node validators. FTDA’s dedicated digital assets research team leverages fundamental “tokenomic” analysis, insights from an imbedded data science team, and deep industry connections to help inform product development and investment decisions.
