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DigiFT

Institution · Tokenised-asset exchange / distribution platform

DigiFT is a Singapore-based licensed exchange and distribution platform for tokenised assets, holding a Capital Markets Services (CMS) licence and Recognised Market Operator (RMO) status from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), together with Type 1 (dealing in securities) and Type 4 (advising on securities) licences from Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). On 21 May 2026, Franklin Templeton appointed DigiFT to distribute its BENJI tokenised money-market fund platform to accredited and institutional investors across Asia, at which point BENJI's market capitalisation exceeded USD 800 million (as of 21 May 2026) (Ledger Insights). The appointment routes one of the longest-lived production tokenised money-market funds through a MAS-licensed venue, and DigiFT's licence stack shows how tokenised-fund distribution in Asia maps onto existing securities-licence categories rather than waiting on a bespoke tokenisation regime.

Licensing

DigiFT's Singapore perimeter rests on 2 MAS authorisations, a CMS licence for dealing in capital markets products and RMO status to operate an organised market for security tokens (Ledger Insights). In Hong Kong, DigiFT holds SFC Type 1 (dealing in securities) and Type 4 (advising on securities) licences, giving it a second regulated distribution surface in the region's other principal tokenisation hub.

None of these categories is bespoke to tokenisation. They cover dealing, advising, and operating a market, the same functions a conventional fund platform performs, so DigiFT's posture is to map each function in the distribution chain onto an existing licence category rather than operate under an experimental or sandboxed regime. With no passporting for tokenised-fund distribution, the firm's Asia coverage rests on separate Singapore and Hong Kong licence stacks acquired one regulator at a time.

BENJI distribution mandate

Franklin Templeton announced the appointment on 21 May 2026, naming DigiFT as a distributor of its BENJI tokenised money-market funds to accredited and institutional investors across Asia (Ledger Insights). BENJI is Franklin Templeton's anchor blockchain offering, with a market capitalisation exceeding USD 800 million as of the 21 May 2026 announcement.

The mandate is a distribution model in which an asset manager leans on a licensed local platform rather than building bilateral relationships market by market. The choice of a dual-licensed intermediary suggests the primacy of MAS approvals when targeting Southeast Asian allocators at scale, with the SFC stack extending reach into Hong Kong's institutional base.

Why it matters

For a tokenisation operator, DigiFT matters as the licensed-exchange route into Asian distribution for tokenised funds, distinct from the market-infrastructure route (Marketnode, the SGX-and-Temasek-aligned platform) and from the issuer-platform route (Securitize in the US). A live USD 800 million-plus tokenised money-market fund (as of May 2026) choosing a MAS-licensed venue for Asia distribution is an institutional adoption signal of the operational kind, real product routed through a regulated counterparty, not a memorandum of understanding.

The licence-stack pattern is the transferable lesson. Distribution of tokenised funds in Singapore and Hong Kong is being assembled from existing CMS, RMO, and SFC licence categories, which rewards firms that hold conventional securities authorisations and leaves no separate regulatory queue for tokenisation-native entrants to wait in.

Open questions

  • The SFC Type 1 and Type 4 licences (grant dates, the licensed Hong Kong entity name) are not yet backed by a primary source archived in raw/; flagged in outputs/_questions.md.
  • The grant date of the MAS CMS licence and RMO recognition (reported elsewhere as December 2023) has no archived primary source in raw/.
  • DigiFT's exchange mechanics (secondary trading of security tokens on public Ethereum against automated market maker liquidity) are referenced in comparison data but not yet archived as a primary source.