Franklin Templeton has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for approval to open a spot ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF). The filing on Monday makes the asset manager with $1.5 trillion in assets under management the latest investment firm to seek approval for such funds.
The other firms seeking approval for spot ETH ETFs include ARK 21 Shares, VanEck, Hashdex, Invesco, BlackRock, and Fidelity, each of which first filed for approval last fall. Grayscale applied to convert its Grayscale Ethereum Trust to a spot ETH ETF in October.
Seven of the eight firms launched spot bitcoin ETFs on Jan. 11, 2024, the first day trading was made possible by the SEC’s long-awaited approval the evening prior. Hashdex, which has a bitcoin futures ETF, did not receive approval of its application to convert it to a spot bitcoin ETF. Franklin Templeton’s spot bitcoin ETF has been less successful than some of the other sponsors, drawing in just $76 million as of Feb. 9.
Market watchers expect the success of the spot BTC ETFs as a whole— more than $1.1 billion net flowed into the 11 funds the week ending Feb. 9 — to invite interest in ETFs for spot ETH, the token of the Ethereum blockchain.
Based on the SEC’s slow approval of spot bitcoin ETFs on the last possible date of the 240-day review process, some analysts expect the SEC to approve such funds on May 23, 2024.
CORRECTION Feb. 13, 10:25 a.m.: Hashdex does not operate a spot BTC ETF. The third paragraph was corrected to reflect it operates a bitcoin futures ETF.
