Franklin Templeton and Animoca Brands Partner to Bring Institutional RWAs to NUVA Marketplace

Franklin Templeton and Animoca Brands are collaborating to integrate institutional-grade tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) into NUVA, a vault marketplace. For fintech professionals, this represents a significant bridge between traditional asset management and decentralized distribution, expanding the utility of blockchain rails for high-value financial products within digital investment ecosystems.

What was announced

The collaboration aims to bring tokenized real-world assets to NUVA, a marketplace co-incubated by Animoca Brands and Nuva Labs. Launched in May 2026, NUVA initially focused on assets based on the Provenance Blockchain, which reported over US$30 billion in total value locked as of September 24, 2026. This new partnership expands NUVA’s reach beyond its existing base, allowing for the integration of institutional-grade assets from a wider variety of issuers.

In addition to the infrastructure integration, the two organizations have released a four-part research series exploring the strategic significance of tokenization. This thought leadership examines how the market has evolved and how institutional investors are now evaluating assets and constructing portfolios using blockchain technology. The series is currently available at www.franklintempleton.com/tokenization. The firms have also indicated they will explore the co-design and tokenization of real-world cultural assets, with further details expected to be released before the end of 2026. By combining Franklin Templeton’s experience in asset management with Animoca Brands’ decentralized distribution capabilities, the initiative seeks to change how institutional investors access and utilize RWAs in a digital-first environment.

"Tokenization is moving beyond simply putting traditional assets on blockchain rails. The next phase is about expanding how those assets can be accessed, utilized and integrated into increasingly digital investment ecosystems,"

Sandy Kaul, Executive Vice President, Head of Digital Assets & Innovation at Franklin Templeton.

The companies involved

Franklin Templeton is a global investment manager that has established itself as a leader in digital asset innovation over the last decade. The firm has focused on expanding the utility of blockchain-enabled investment solutions within institutional workflows. Animoca Brands is a prominent global digital assets and AI company, known for its extensive portfolio of investments in the decentralized space, including projects like The Sandbox. Yat Siu, the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Animoca Brands, also serves as a Member of the Task Force on Promoting Web3 Development in the Hong Kong SAR, reflecting the company's deep ties to the regulatory and developmental landscape of digital assets in Asia.

NUVA, the marketplace at the center of this announcement, was co-incubated by Animoca Brands and Nuva Labs to provide a vault-based architecture for accessing blockchain-based assets. While Franklin Templeton brings traditional financial expertise and battle-tested asset management, Animoca Brands provides the decentralized distribution network. This partnership leverages Franklin Templeton’s position as a pioneer in tokenizing traditional financial assets to bolster the institutional credibility of the NUVA platform. FF News has published 25 reports on Franklin Templeton and 12 on Animoca Brands, reflecting their central roles in the evolving fintech landscape.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has closely followed the intersection of traditional finance and tokenized assets. In September 2026, we covered how Bybit and Franklin Templeton Bridge TradFi and Crypto with Tokenized Collateral, a move that signaled Franklin Templeton's intent to broaden access to its tokenized offerings. We also reported on the growth of the RWA sector when Mantle Hits All-Time Highs with $476M in Tokenized Real-World Assets. More recently, in October 2026, we noted that Animoca Brands Partners with Reap and Pivota to Launch Identity-Powered AI Agentic Commerce, highlighting the company's continuous expansion into AI-driven financial ecosystems.

What this means

This collaboration signals that the tokenization of real-world assets has moved past the experimental phase and into a competitive infrastructure race. By moving institutional-grade assets into a marketplace like NUVA, the industry is seeing a shift where distribution channels are becoming as important as the underlying technology. Traditional custodians and asset managers are under increasing pressure to provide digital native access points or risk being bypassed by decentralized platforms. The primary question for the sector now is whether these vault architectures can provide the liquidity and regulatory compliance necessary to satisfy large-scale institutional mandates on a global scale.