Franklin Templeton Proposes New ETF

Investment firm Franklin Templeton filed an S-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday proposing a new exchange-traded fund that would hold both bitcoin and ether and trade under the ticker EZPZ.

The ETF, named the Franklin Crypto Index ETF, will initially hold a yet-unspecified allocation of bitcoin and ether weighted by the market capitalization of each digital asset. The proposed fund will utilize Coinbase as its digital asset custodian.

According to the S-1 filing, additional digital assets could be added to the ETF in the future if the fund receives regulatory approval. Exchange Cboe BZX, where Franklin Templeton’s EZPZ would trade, filed for regulatory approvals for ETFs holding Solana in July. However, there is skepticism among crypto pundits regarding the Solana ETF approval under the current political administration.

Franklin Templeton’s filing follows Hashdex’s recent S-1 submission for a similarly structured ETF on July 24, just two days after spot Ethereum ETFs received approval to start trading. The SEC has postponed a decision on Hashdex’s filing and now has until September 30, 2024 to act on the proposed rule change.