Bitcoin (BTC) aside, the best investment in crypto is its “picks and shovels,” according to the CEO of $1.6 trillion asset manager Franklin Templeton.

Jenny Johnson, the third-generation leader of the manager, spoke at the SALT conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Tuesday, doubling down on what in her opinion will be the biggest use cases of blockchain technology and where investors should put their money.

In her view, bitcoin functions as a “fear currency” — a financial refuge for people in countries where governments can block access to funds or where national currencies lose value over time. But despite its appeal in those scenarios, she sees it as a distraction.

Bitcoin, she argues, is the “greatest distraction for one of the greatest disruptions that is coming to financial services.”

That disruption, she said, lies in the underlying infrastructure — not in digital assets themselves, but in the systems that support them. That’s where she believes capital should be focused.

“The picks and shovels are the baseline of the strong, layered apps,” Johnson said. “I like the rails as a starting point,” she added, referring to blockchain networks. “Then there are some great consumer apps that are coming out that I think are really exciting.”

She also sees promise in the role of validators, the entities that maintain blockchain networks. For active investment managers, they could offer a new layer of transparency and are a “game changer”.

“Just imagine seeing on public equity all the transactions that go in and out of that company and how much information that gives you,” she said.

Johnson led the asset management firm into digital assets after taking over her family’s company in 2020. Under her leadership, the firm has launched multiple crypto exchange-traded products and introduced the OnChain U.S. Government Market Fund, a tokenized investment vehicle.

She expects financial products like mutual funds and ETFs to eventually move to blockchains, where they could operate more efficiently and at lower cost. But for now, regulation remains the “biggest inhibitor” to that shift, she said.

Part of the hesitation, she added, comes from the sheer number of digital assets likely to fail — a level of risk regulators aren’t yet prepared to manage.

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。