Franklin Templeton Joins BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale In Ethereum ETF Race

Updated: 13 February 2024

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Franklin Templeton is joining the race to launch a spot Ethereum ETF (exchange-traded fund) alongside competitors including BlackRock, Fidelity and Grayscale.

The fund manager filed an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dated Feb. 12, and joins others in the queue that include Ark and 21Shares, VanEck, Invesco and Galaxy, and Hashdex, all of which submitted similar filings in the past couple of months.

Analysts Disagree On When A Spot Ethereum ETF Will Be Approved

The SEC has so far delayed all decisions to approve Ethereum ETFs. Banking giant JP Morgan says there is a 50% chance that such a fund will be approved before May, while investment bank TD Cowen said such funds may not be approved until late 2025 or early 2026.

📢 Spot Ethereum ETF approval 'unlikely until late 2025 or early 2026,' says Investment Bank TD Cowen#EthereumETF #Ethereum #ETH #Crypto pic.twitter.com/Cj9RFVyYVU

— BNB Swap (@BNBSwap) January 30, 2024

“We believe there is no upside for SEC Chair Gary Gensler to approve a spot Ethereum ETF given how upset progressive Democrats were over the agency’s approval of a spot bitcoin ETF earlier this month, ” said TD Cowen Washington Research Group analysts led by Jaret Seiberg in a Jan. 29 note. “This is a political call.”

Standard Chartered, on the other hand, believes the SEC will approve spot Ethereum ETFs by May 23, the final deadline for the first of the ETFs under consideration.

Franklin’s Bitcoin ETF Unable To Gain Significant Traction

Franklin’s Ethereum ETF filing comes approximately four weeks after it and nine other issuers launched a spot Bitcoin ETF. Since the launch of these investment products on Jan. 11, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) have seen the most demand.

Franklin’s fund, however, had a less successful start and was only able to register $70 million in inflows since launching. This is overshadowed by the $3.5 billion and $3 billion IBIT and FBTC were able to attract, respectively, during the same period.