Franklin Templeton seeks SEC’s nod for BTC, ETH Crypto Index ETF
- Franklin Templeton joins Hashdex within the crypto index fund race
- The index fund will monitor ETH and BTC
The $1.5 trillion asset manger Franklin Templeton is the newest participant searching for to launch a crypto index ETF (exchange-traded fund). The agency filed a registration assertion, S-1 form, with the U.S SEC (Securities and Change Fee) for an index ETF that might monitor Bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum [ETH].
A part of the submitting learn,
“The Fund typically seeks to replicate the value of the digital belongings included within the CF Institutional Digital Asset Index – US–Settlement Worth (the “Underlying Index”)… The Underlying Index’s solely constituent digital belongings are bitcoin and ether.”
Crypto index ETF race
Market pundits have been speculating {that a} crypto index ETF is the following step after the highest belongings, BTC and ETH, acquired particular person ETFs. In reality, Brian Armstrong, Founding father of Coinbase, echoed this sentiment within the recent earnings name.
“I feel this stuff may very well be actually useful…We’d finally wish to see a path the place we might begin to get index funds — retail merchandise — within the crypto area.”
He additionally teased a Coinbase 500 that gives publicity to high crypto belongings, much like the S&P 500 Index, which tracks high U.S companies.
That being mentioned, Armstrong acknowledged that regulatory challenges might delay such a imaginative and prescient, on condition that BTC and ETH are the one belongings with regulatory readability for the time being.
In the meantime, Nate Geraci clarified that Franklin Templeton’s crypto index fund (EZPZ) might solely embrace further belongings like Solana [SOL] with regulatory approval.
“Would require regulatory approval to carry any further digital belongings…”
To this point, Hashdex is the primary to point out curiosity in a U.S crypto index fund. The SEC’s decision on Hashdex’s utility deadline is September 2024.
Franklin Templeton’s transfer is an indication that the area might hit up quickly, not less than for these searching for collective publicity to BTC and ETH.
Approval will solely occur if the SEC indicators off on each the S-1 (registration statements) and the exchanges’ 19b 4b (rule adjustments). If permitted, these could be the US’ first publicly-traded crypto index funds.
Nevertheless, it’s price noting that Bitwise already has a crypto index fund, Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (BITW), monitoring the highest 10 belongings. Proper now, the fund is just accessible privately to permitted shoppers and never on main exchanges like NYSE or Nasdaq although.
