Ethereum ETF: Franklin Templeton Enters The Fray As ETH Rallies

Wall Street titan and Asset manager Franklin Templeton has applied for an Ethereum Spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF) after a struggle to gain approval for their Bitcoin Spot ETF in early January.

Asset managers have gravitated toward the Ethereum spot ETF since the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the Spot Bitcoin ETF. Franklin Templeton is the latest manager to apply with the SEC to get approval for this financial product. 

The asset manager’s move came after successfully introducing the BTC spot ETFs. This is a notable step toward making more crypto investment products accessible to institutional and individual investors.

James Seyffart, a senior analyst from Bloomberg Intelligence, also shared the update with the crypto community on X (formerly Twitter). Seyffart’s X post included a screenshot of the asset manager’s filing and data regarding other applicants.

According to the post, Franklin Templeton is the eighth company in the cryptocurrency market to file for product approval. Previous asset managers to file applications for Ethereum ETFs include Hashdex, BlackRock, Fidelity, Ark and 21Shares, Grayscale, VanEck, Invesco, and Galaxy. 

Per the official filing, a Delaware statutory trust is how the Franklin Ethereum Trust is set up. The ETF aims to give investors access to ETH in a regulated manner by allowing them to store it directly through a custodian.

It states in the company’s S-1 filing that the proposed “Franklin Ethereum Trust” will hold ETH and “may, from time to time, stake a portion of the fund’s assets through one of the more trusted staking providers.”

Staking is the act of locking up digital currency to maintain the operations of a blockchain network. They plan to stake some of the ETF’s ETH holdings to supplement its income through staking rewards.

Franklin Templeton’s spot Ethereum ETF application was made in light of the price of ETH experiencing an uptick. However, no solid proof exists that the latest development impacted the price of crypto assets.

Related Reading: Ethereum ETFs Approval Date Set For May 23, Forecasts Suggest ETH Could Reach $4,000

Ethereum was trading at $2,661 as of press time, indicating an increase of over 7% in the past 24 hours. Data from CoinMarketCap shows that its market capitalization is also on the upside, marking an increase of over 7%. 

Meanwhile, its trading volume has increased significantly by over 172% in the past day. Due to the rise, ETH now ranks third in the entire crypto market by trading volume.