Franklin Templeton joins the Ethereum ETF race

Franklin Templeton has become the latest Wall Street firm to file for an Ether (ETH) exchange-traded fund in the United States.

The $1.5 trillion asset management firm filed an S-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on February 12. If approved, it will be listed on the Chicago Board Options Exchange as the “Franklin Ethereum ETF”.

Interestingly, Franklin indicated last week in ARK 21Shares' amended S-1 filing that it intends to split a portion of the ETF's Ether to generate additional income, similar to that of ARK 21Shares.

“The Sponsor may from time to time distribute the Fund's assets through one or more fiduciary stakeholders, which may include an affiliate of the Sponsor.”

Franklin said he would keep Ether from his trust's cold storage wallet, and the trust would be treated as income and receive high rewards.

BlackRock, VanEyck, Fidelity, Invesco Galaxy, Grayscale and Hashdex are other places where Ether ETF applicants are vying for SEC approval.

Here's a table of the most recent other filers I have pic.twitter.com/xCRRMwK76r

— James Seyff (@JSeyff) February 12, 2024

The SEC is expected to rule on VanEck's application on May 23, ARK 21Shares on May 24, Hashdex on May 30, Grayscale on June 18 and Invesco on July 5.

Fidelity and BlackRock applications are due August 3 and August 7.

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However, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seifert expects a decision on all applicants on May 23 — similar to the decision the US securities regulator made on Jan. 10 on all Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs.

Seifert's fellow Bloomberg ETF analyst Erik Balchunas recently downgraded his approval rating for the 2024 spot ether ETF from 70% to 60% on Jan. 30.

Franklin was one of 10 ETF issuers that launched a spot Bitcoin ETF in the US last month.

While Franklin was late to the ether ETF race, he recently praised the network fundamentals of Ethereum, Solana and other blockchains, sparking speculation that the ETF issuer could expand beyond Bitcoin.

We are excited about ETH and its ecosystem. Despite the recent mid-life crisis, we see a bright future with plenty of strong tailwinds to push the Ethereum ecosystem forward: EIP 4844-Alt DA-Community Revitalization-Restaking

— Franklin Templeton (@FTI_US) January 17, 2024

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