Franklin Templeton, a global investment firm with $1.4 trillion in assets under management, has recently highlighted its bullish stance on Runes, a new Bitcoin fungible token protocol aimed at enhancing Bitcoin DeFi. The firm released a detailed paper discussing the potential of Runes to 'close the gap' between Bitcoin and other leading cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Solana in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. This move by Franklin Templeton is seen as a significant endorsement of Bitcoin's evolving role in DeFi, suggesting a shift towards more complex financial instruments within the cryptocurrency space.