Franklin Templeton is one of the Wall Street giants who had the Bitcoin spot ETF approved by the SEC
On February 12 (US time), American asset management company Franklin Templeton submitted to the SEC a proposal to establish a spot ETF for Ethereum, joining the list of Wall Street giants with similar plans including including BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Invesco, ARK Invest and VanEck.
Franklin Templeton said its spot ETF will directly reflect Ethereum price movements, with ETH and cash for the fund backed by Coinbase and BNY Mellon bank. Treasury shares will be listed on the Cboe stock exchange.
Additionally, to meet SEC requirements as with the Bitcoin spot ETF, Franklin Templeton's Ethereum spot ETF will only be allowed to use cash to buy shares, as well as receive cash back when closing the position.
Not stopping there, the proposal also mentions the possibility of the fund issuer using Ethereum to participate in staking, generating additional profits from the idle assets in the fund.
A few days ago, ARK Invest also adjusted their proposal to add a staking section. However, as analyzed by Coin68, the SEC under the direction of Chairman Gary Gensler has always considered staking to be a type of security and may not allow ETF issuers to do what they want. . In 2023, the SEC fined Kraken and asked to stop staking services, as well as sued the largest US exchange Coinbase for the same reason.
The Securities and Exchange Commission since late 2023 has repeatedly delayed the approval of spot Ethereum ETFs, maintaining the same wait-for-the-deadline approach as Bitcoin ETFs.
In an announcement early on the morning of February 7, the US Securities Commission (SEC) decided to delay the decision to approve or reject the Ethereum spot ETF proposal of global investment management group Invesco.
The SEC said it needs more time to evaluate relevant legal and policy issues before reaching a final agreement. Therefore, the new deadline will be postponed to May 6, while the deadline forcing the SEC to make a decision will be July 5, 2024.
Also in the announcement, the SEC asked Invesco similar questions to Grayscale, asking whether Ethereum's Proof-of-Stake mechanism and the concentration of power in a few individuals or organizations make the fund vulnerable to fraud and fraud. Manipulative or not. Accordingly, Invesco has 21 days to prepare answers and rebuttals within the next 35 days.
Since the end of last year, the US Securities Commission has postponed the approval deadline for Ethereum spot ETFs of Grayscale, Fidelity and BlackRock. It is currently unknown whether the US securities regulator will approve the Ethereum spot ETF or not.
Investment bank TD Cowen predicts an Ethereum spot exchange-traded fund product is highly likely by the end of 2025, while other experts almost universally think the SEC will issue a ruling on the 23rd. /05.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart commented that the market will continue to see more news that the SEC will postpone its review of the Ethereum ETF until the final deadline.
Furthermore, in recent statements, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has always affirmed that the commission only accepts ETFs for Bitcoin because it has been proven not to be a security, but other cryptocurrencies are not.
