- Franklin Templeton Joins Hashdex in the Crypto Index Fund Race
- The index fund will track ETH and BTC
$1.5 trillion asset manager Franklin Templeton is the latest player to launch a crypto index ETF (exchange-traded fund). The company has filed a registration statement, S-1 formwith the US SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) for an index ETF to follow Bitcoin [BTC] And Ethereum [ETH].
Part of the filing read:
“The Fund generally aims to reflect the price of the digital assets included in the CF Institutional Digital Asset Index – US-Settlement Price (the “Underlying Index”)… The only digital assets included in the Underlying Index are bitcoin and ether.”
Crypto index ETF race
Market experts speculate that a crypto index ETF is the next step after the top assets, BTC and ETH, became individual ETFs. Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong even echoed this sentiment in the recently revenue calling.
“I think these things could be very useful… We would eventually like to see a path where we could get index funds – retail products – into the crypto space.”
He also teased a Coinbase 500 that offers exposure to the best crypto assets, similar to the S&P 500 Index, which tracks top US companies.
That said, Armstrong acknowledged that regulatory challenges could delay such a vision, as BTC and ETH are currently the only assets with clear regulations.
Meanwhile, Nate Geraci clarified that Franklin Templeton’s crypto index fund (EZPZ) could only hold additional assets such as Solana [SOL] with the approval of the supervisor.
“Regulatory approval would be required to hold additional digital assets…”
So far, Hashdex is the first to show interest in a US crypto index fund. The SEC’s decision The deadline for signing up for Hashdex is September 2024.
Franklin Templeton’s move is a sign that the space could rise quickly, at least for those seeking collective exposure to BTC and ETH.
Approval will only occur if the SEC signs both the S-1 (registration statements) and the exchange’s 19b 4b (rule changes). If approved, these would be the United States’ first publicly traded crypto index funds.
However, it’s worth noting that Bitwise already has a crypto index fund, Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (BITW), which tracks the top 10 assets. Currently, the fund is only available privately to approved clients and not on major exchanges such as NYSE or Nasdaq.