Franklin Templeton Praises Solana and Ethereum, Fuels Speculation on Investment Moves

According to Decrypt, global investment firm Franklin Templeton recently shared its positive views on layer one blockchain Solana and Ethereum in a series of tweets, leading to speculation about the company's next moves in the crypto space. Franklin Templeton, one of the largest asset management companies in the world, manages over $1.4 trillion in assets. The firm's digital asset team emphasized the importance of improving blockchain fees and performance to unlock more potential use cases and enhance user experience. Last week, Franklin Templeton joined other major firms, including BlackRock, VanEck, Ark Invest, and Fidelity, in having their spot Bitcoin ETFs approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company expressed admiration for the Solana blockchain, highlighting its powerful use case as a single atomic state machine, as envisioned by Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko. The firm also praised the activity seen on Solana in Q4 2023, driven by projects such as DePIN, meme coins, NFTs, DeFi, and the high-performance validator client Firedancer. Franklin Templeton also expressed excitement about Ethereum and its ecosystem, despite its recent growing pains. The firm identified several factors contributing to the Ethereum ecosystem's momentum, including EIP 4844, developments in alternative data availability (Alt DA), community revitalization, and restaking. Additionally, the company acknowledged the potential of other layer-one blockchains besides Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, stating that they continue to support, monitor, and develop on these networks as they grow and mature. A Franklin Templeton spokesperson declined to comment further on the tweets or potential future fund offerings, but confirmed the company's ongoing monitoring of developments in the digital assets and ETF ecosystems for diversification opportunities.