The launch marks Franklin Templeton’s latest step into digital assets, introducing a blockchain-based UCITS fund as Hong Kong accelerates its push toward real-world asset tokenization. Franklin Templeton has launched a tokenized US dollar money market fund for professional investors in Hong Kong, expanding its crypto offerings in Asia. According to a statement shared with Cointelegraph on Wednesday, the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund is the first end-to-end tokenized structure by an asset manager to integrate issuance, distribution and servicing directly onchain in Hong Kong. The tokenized fund will be initially available only to institutional and professional investors. It is registered in Luxembourg under a regulated framework that allows investment funds to be sold across the European Union. Read more
Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation. Today in crypto, Galaxy cut its 2025 Bitcoin price forecast to $120,000 from $185,000, citing changing market conditions. US spot Solana ETFs extended their six-day inflow streak, while the White House defended President Trump’s pardon of former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. Investment company Galaxy lowered its 2025 Bitcoin price forecast to $120,000 from $185,000, citing several headwinds and dampened price volatility due to passive investment flows into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and financial institutions. Factors such as whales dumping 400,000 Bitcoin onto the market in October, along with rotations into other investment narratives such as gold, AI and stablecoins, in addition to leveraged liquidations, have put a damper on BTC price, Alex Thorn, Galaxy’s head of research, said on Wednesday. Read more
The mixed ruling was claimed as a victory by both Stability AI and Getty Images, muddying the legal waters around AI and intellectual property. The United Kingdom’s High Court of Justice issued a mixed ruling on Tuesday in the Getty Images v. Stability AI intellectual property case filed in 2023, which mostly favored Stability AI but left key questions unanswered about AI’s use of copyrighted material. Getty owns a library of copyrighted online stock images — which it licenses to users for a fee — and alleged that Stability’s Stable Diffusion AI model, which is trained using online material, infringed upon its trademark and copyrighted material. Stability’s Stable Diffusion AI model infringed on Getty’s trademark by reproducing its watermark in certain cases. However, the findings were “extremely limited in scope,” Justice Joanna Smith ruled. Read more
Auchan will continue to invest in Romania, says Tiberiu Danetiu, corporate affairs & retail media director with Auchan Romania. Investments contribute to keeping the economy dynamic, support jobs, stimulate innovation and create the premises for a sustainable relaunch.