Franklin Templeton CEO holds BTC, ETH, UNI and SUSHI

Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson has reportedly personally invested in cryptocurrencies – including bitcoin and ether, as well Uniswap UNI

-0.71%
And Sushi SUSHI

+8.35%
Exchange governance tokens.

Those investments are “small in my overall portfolio,” Johnson said told Fortune in an interview published Saturday. This appears to be the first time Johnson has made her crypto investments public.

However, Johnson doesn’t seem to be a fan of non-fungible tokens. She expressed a preference for mature investments with clear financial returns, stating that not all NFTs make sense from a personal investment perspective.

“I tend to invest in things that I think are anchored in achieving financial returns because I think that’s where you have a better chance of success,” she said. “There are some things that are like art in an NFT: if two people love it, they will find a market price for it. And so there will be opportunities in that area. Not everything will be successful, not everyone will doing.” are good, but there will be those who are successful.”

Johnson on Bitcoin ETF Approval

Franklin Templeton, with more than $1.3 trillion in assets under management, filed for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund with the Securities and Exchange Commission in September. The SEC has yet to approve a spot bitcoin ETF. When asked when the regulator might greenlight such a product, Johnson said she is uncertain about the approval timeline. She said regulators are in the process of determining the best approach and should approve it in due course.

Several asset managers, including BlackRock and Fidelity, have applied for approval for spot bitcoin ETFs. Johnson said: “There is clearly demand for bitcoin, and I believe a spot ETF is a better way to access bitcoin.”

Johnson on blockchain democratizing private markets

Franklin Templeton has actively researched and applied blockchain technology. In 2021, it launched a tokenized money market fund and crypto-focused, separately managed accounts. It is also a blockchain node validator. Johnson said in the interview that Franklin Templeton is a “huge supporter” of the crypto and blockchain space.

Johnson said blockchain technology will enable, among other things, the democratization of private markets. “This is because technology removes the frictional costs associated with processing transactions. And if you can reduce friction in transactions, you can more easily secure or fractionalize ownership of things that would have been too difficult operationally to consider,” she said. . “Instead, you can create and transfer ownership of these hard-to-process assets much more easily.”