Franklin Templeton, a renowned global investment firm with roughly $1.45 trillion worth of assets under management, has recently submitted an application for a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This move places Franklin Templeton alongside other financial giants like BlackRock and Fidelity, who are also vying for the establishment of the inaugural Bitcoin ETF.
Highlights:
- Franklin Templeton, managing assets worth approximately $1.45 trillion, has made its debut application for a Bitcoin ETF with the SEC.
- The firm has selected Coinbase as the custodian for the Bitcoin assets of the fund. However, the pricing will be determined using a reference rate from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
- This initiative by Franklin Templeton mirrors similar endeavors by other major financial institutions, including BlackRock and Fidelity. The cryptocurrency market is keenly anticipating the potential green light for a spot bitcoin ETF.
Further details reveal that the terms set by Franklin Templeton for the spot bitcoin ETF align with those proposed by other key players in the conventional finance sector. As per the application, Coinbase will be responsible for safeguarding the Bitcoin assets of the fund. The ETF is slated to be listed on the Cboe BZX Exchange, with pricing based on the CME’s CF Bitcoin Reference Rate–New York Variant.
This marks a significant milestone for Franklin Templeton, as it is their inaugural venture into creating a Bitcoin ETF product. This move is particularly noteworthy given past comments by Franklin Templeton‘s CEO, Jenny Johnson, who once remarked that while “bitcoin is the greatest distraction,” the real game-changer in financial services is blockchain technology.
