Franklin Templeton, a global investment management powerhouse with $1.8 trillion in AUM, has been approved to launch two new Bitcoin-oriented ETFs to trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
As per the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company has filed a registration for two investment vehicles that will systematically transform U.S. stock dividends into Bitcoin exposure.
The two new products are named Franklin US Equity Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF (FBEQ) and Franklin US Innovation Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF (FIBT).
The two products will differ from traditional Bitcoin ETFs as they aim to blend traditional stock investments with a Bitcoin dividend reinvestment strategy instead of just following the price of the leading cryptocurrency.
For starters, these products will put 95% of their capital into U.S. equities while putting 5% into Bitcoin-related assets.
The products will not reinvest their stock dividends into additional shares; instead, they will use them to add more Bitcoin exposure over time.
The two investment vehicles will follow indexes created by VettaFi. The FBEQ product will follow large-cap U.S. companies while the FIBT product will follow innovation stocks.
Franklin Templeton expands Bitcoin exposure
The latest announcement from the company is another step in Franklin Templeton's expanding footprint in the cryptocurrency sector.
The investment titan already has the Franklin Bitcoin ETF (EZBC) spot Bitcoin investment product in place, which has received around $335 million in net inflows so far.
The newly registered ETFs differ in that they bring cryptocurrency exposure into traditional equity investment schemes.
Arman Shirinyan
Dan Burgin
