What are DBS and Franklin Templeton doing with RLUSD?

The full answer

What did DBS, Franklin Templeton and Ripple agree?

On September 18, 2025, Ripple announced that DBS, Franklin Templeton and Ripple had signed a memorandum of understanding to launch trading and lending solutions powered by tokenised money market funds and stablecoins [1]. The release says the partnership is aimed at accredited and institutional investors [1]. Ledger Insights, reporting the same day, described DBS as Singapore’s largest bank and said the fund would be offered through DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx) [2].

As of September 30, 2026, I could not find any source reporting that either phase went live.

A memorandum of understanding records an intention. It is not a product launch, and the release describes both parts of the plan in future terms: DDEx “will list” the token, and DBS “will explore” lending against it [1].

How would the trading step work?

Ripple’s release says DDEx will list sgBENJI, the token of Franklin Templeton’s tokenised money market fund, the Franklin Onchain U.S. Dollar Short-Term Money Market Fund, alongside RLUSD [1]. The release says the fund is structured as a sub-fund of the Franklin Templeton Investments VCC [1]. With this setup, according to the release, eligible DBS clients can trade RLUSD for sgBENJI tokens, rebalancing into a relatively stable asset 24/7 and within minutes while earning yield [1].

The release gives its reason for the design. It says digital asset investors typically hold tokens such as Bitcoin, Ether and XRP, which may expose them to market volatility while earning no yield [1]. It contrasts this with ordinary money market funds, which it says typically trade only during market hours and often need up to two business days to settle [1]. For what RLUSD itself is, see what RLUSD is and what it means for XRP.

What is the lending phase?

In the next phase, Ripple’s release says, DBS will explore helping clients unlock liquidity by using their sgBENJI tokens as collateral [1]. It lists two potential routes: credit from the bank through a repurchase transaction (repo), or credit from third-party platforms where DBS will act as an agent holding the collateral [1]. The release defines a repo as short-term borrowing in which one party sells a security for cash and agrees upfront to buy it back later at a higher price [1]. Ledger Insights reported the same plan, saying DBS plans to use the sgBENJI token as collateral and that this might involve repo transactions where users borrow cash from the bank [2].

Nigel Khakoo of Ripple is quoted in the release describing the linkup as one “to enable repo trades for a tokenised money market fund” with RLUSD [1]. This quote goes further than the release’s own body, which lists repo as a potential use case DBS will explore later. The body text is the narrower statement of what was agreed. How tokenized funds are turned into cash or credit more generally is covered in whether tokenized Treasuries and funds can be used as collateral.

Where does sgBENJI run today, and how much is issued?

Ripple’s release says Franklin Templeton will tokenise sgBENJI on the XRP Ledger and describes this as adding the XRP Ledger to Franklin Templeton’s existing line-up of blockchains [1]. It says the XRP Ledger was chosen for its speed, efficiency and low transaction costs [1]. Ledger Insights wrote on the same day that “the issuance of the sgBENJI token is on the XRP Ledger, expanding Franklin Templeton’s supported blockchains” and that BENJI is the token for the Franklin Onchain U.S. Dollar Short-Term Money Market Fund [2]. Ripple’s release, published the same day, uses the future tense for the XRP Ledger issuance [1].

Franklin Templeton reported US$1.62 trillion in assets under management as of July 31, 2025, according to the company description in the release [1]. That figure covers the whole firm, not this fund. As of September 30, 2026, I could not find the amount of sgBENJI issued, on the XRP Ledger or any other chain.

What remains before an XRP Ledger launch, and has any date been given?

Three things described in the release would need to happen: Franklin Templeton issuing sgBENJI on the XRP Ledger, DDEx listing it against RLUSD, and DBS deciding whether to offer credit against it [1]. On September 18, 2025, DBS, Franklin Templeton, and Ripple announced in a joint statement that they had signed a memorandum of understanding to provide accredited and institutional investors with trading and lending solutions using tokenised money market funds on the XRP Ledger and stablecoins such as Ripple USD, with DBS to explore letting clients use sgBENJI tokens as collateral in the partnership’s next phase; as of October 1, 2026, I could not find any source reporting that this collateral phase had been completed. Whether anything from the deal is expected before year end is tracked on the XRP and Ripple pipeline for Q4 2026.

The gap between an announcement and a working product is a recurring issue on the XRP Ledger. Forkast, writing on August 21, 2026, called the gap “between announcement and activation” the real constraint [5]. How often such announcements have become live products is examined in whether XRPL institutional announcements are becoming live products.

Does this deal involve XRP?

As Ripple’s release describes it, the trading pair is RLUSD and sgBENJI, and the collateral for the lending phase is sgBENJI [1]. Neither step names XRP as collateral, trading pair or settlement asset. The release’s stated purpose is to give holders of tokens such as XRP a way to move into a yield-bearing fund during volatility [1].

The strongest critique of reading deals like this as XRP demand comes from two sources. CaptainAltcoin’s rumor check of September 10, 2026 put it directly: “‘Connected to Ripple’ does not mean ‘uses XRP.’ ‘Included in software’ does not mean ‘already live.’” [4]. CCN reported on August 20, 2026 that the represented value of tokenized real-world assets on the XRP Ledger reached $4.46 billion in Q2 2026, while the value of freely transferable, distributed RWAs fell 5% to $386.1 million [3]. The same CCN report said that billions of dollars can move across the XRP Ledger without creating substantial fee demand or meaningfully reducing XRP’s supply [3]. The wider argument is set out in whether tokenization on the XRP Ledger creates any demand for XRP.