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Crypto World

developers, scaling, PitchFest , Hackathon

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developers, scaling, PitchFest , Hackathon

HONG KONG — CoinDesk wrapped up Consensus Hong Kong on Thursday with north of 11,000 attendees visiting booths and stages.

While day 1 focused on institutional projects and professional investor audiences, the second day concentrated on developers. Representatives of the Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana communities all spoke to the challenge of scaling their networks and the tooling needed to support growing user bases.

World Liberty Financial, the crypto project linked to U.S. President Donald Trump and his family, is planning to start a foreign-exchange platform called World Swap, which co-founder Zak Folkman said will target cross-border transfers. World Swap will use the USD1 stablecoin and charge less than traditional remittance providers, which can impose a cost of up to 10% per transaction.

The institution-focused LayerZero blockchain will port over to Cardano, and the privacy-focused Midnight mainnet will go live next month, Input Output Global CEO Charles Hoskinson said on stage. In a question-and-answer session, he added that Midnight would not be targeting deeply committed privacy users who might use ZCash and Monero.

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Binance co-CEO Richard Teng defended his company from accusations that it played an outsize role in the Oct. 10 liquidation event, which saw $19 billion worth of liquidations. Rather, macro shocks caused a broader market downturn, he said.

Consensus day 2 also saw zkME win the Consensus PitchFest and FoundrAI win the Easy A x Consensus Hackathon.

Both of these events will return on May 5-7, when CoinDesk hosts its flagship North American Consensus — this time in Miami.

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Crypto World

Franklin Templeton Expands Crypto Arm With CoinFund Deal

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Franklin Templeton Expands Crypto Arm With CoinFund Deal

Global asset manager Franklin Templeton is set to expand its crypto footprint by acquiring a spinoff of the crypto-native investment firm CoinFund.

Franklin Templeton said Wednesday it plans to acquire 250 Digital, a CoinFund spinoff that runs liquid crypto investment strategies, expanding the asset manager’s digital asset business. The deal will form part of a new unit called Franklin Crypto once it closes.

The move follows CoinFund’s decision earlier this year to spin out its liquid strategies business into 250 Digital as the company sharpened its focus on venture investing.

Christopher Perkins will lead the new Franklin Crypto, and Seth Ginns will serve as chief investment officer alongside Franklin Templeton digital assets veteran Tony Pecore, as the company broadens its crypto investment platform for institutional clients.

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The deal will incorporate BENJI tokens, which represent ownership shares in the Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX), a regulated money market fund tokenized by Franklin Templeton in 2021.

Acquisition involves all liquid strategies previously run by CoinFund

Franklin said the undisclosed transaction includes the 250 Digital investment team and all liquid cryptocurrency strategies previously run by CoinFund, and that it will also invest in those strategies as part of the agreement.

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, subject to the execution of definitive transaction agreements, client consents and other customary closing conditions.

Source: Franklin Templeton Digital Assets

Franklin Templeton’s digital asset arm manages around $1.8 billion in assets and is a major institutional player in the crypto industry, where it has been building a presence since 2018.

The company is known for being one of the first to launch a US-listed spot Bitcoin ETF alongside other major asset managers such as BlackRock in 2024.

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Related: Franklin Templeton, Ondo to launch tokenized ETFs with 24/7 trading via crypto wallets

The acquisition comes during a prolonged slump in the crypto market, with Bitcoin down around 45% from its peak above $126,000 recorded in October 2025.

However, Franklin Templeton says the environment is attracting talent and creating opportunities to build long-term infrastructure.

Franklin’s head of innovation, Sandy Kaul, told The Wall Street Journal the recent market selloff helped create an opening to expand.

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“This big selloff that we had in the crypto markets is creating a very unique opportunity that really made us all decide that this is the right time to pull the trigger,” Kaul said.

Magazine: A newbie’s guide to surviving crypto winter