Franklin Templeton, a global investment firm, filed for a spot bitcoin exchange traded fund with the U.S. SEC on Tuesday, joining BlackRock, Fidelity and others in an effort to launch the first bitcoin ETF.
Franklin Templeton's ETF spot filing has terms similar to those seen in recent applications by other major players in traditional finance. The filing said that Coinbase will act as the custodian of bitcoin held by the fund. The ETF will then be traded on the Cboe BZX Exchange and will use the CME's CF Bitcoin Reference Rate-New York Variant for pricing.
Will spot bitcoin eTFs ever see the light of day?
The filing follows a wave of new spot-bitcoin ETF filings launched in June by BlackRock. Since then, Excitement has been building around the potential approval of a spot bitcoin ETF, thanks to BlackRock's reputation and pivotal role in the U.S. financial system. Plus, VanEck, Fidelity and BlackRock have also submitted their own applications. The decision on those spot bitcoin ETFs and others has been delayed until October by the SEC.
Digital asset firm Grayscale has won appeals over the SEC's decision not to allow the Bitcoin Investment Trust to be turned into a full-fledged ETF. Although the SEC must now clarification their reasons for rejecting the transition of GBTC to an ETF, the court's ruling does not necessarily mean the change or other ETFs will now be approved.
We're still reviewing that decision,' said SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee hearing this morning.
We're reviewing them and I'm looking forward to staff's recommendations, Gensler said.