Wall Street Titan Franklin Templeton Enters Spot Ethereum ETF Race

The spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) race continues to heat up, with today's entry from notable Wall Street institution Franklin Templeton, which filed a proposal with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A prestigious firm with $1.4 trillion in assets under management, Franklin Templeton wants to launch a fund that exposes investors to the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market cap, ETH.

The firm's S-1 registration form says that the proposed "Franklin Ethereum Trust" would hold ETH and "may, from time to time, stake a portion of the Fund's assets through one or more trusted staking providers."

"Staking" refers to the process of "locking up" digital coins or tokens to help keep a blockchain network running. Those who stake earn token rewards in the process.

It's a controversial practice among tradfi players and regulators, however. The SEC has already fined major crypto companies—including Coinbase—for allegedly selling unregistered securities via staking services.

In January, the SEC gave the green light to 10 spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs to start trading. After a decade of denials, the investment vehicles now trade on stock exchanges, giving traditional investors the ability to invest in crypto, without having to actually own crypto.

Franklin Templeton is one of the major fund managers that got the green light from the regulator with its Franklin Bitcoin ETF.

Other major players proposing a spot ETH ETF include BlackRock, Grayscale, and VanEck.

Since the approval of spot BTC ETFs, billions of dollars have flowed into the funds, pushing the price of the cryptocurrency up.

British multinational bank Standard Chartered last month said in a report that it expected ETH ETFs to get approval from the SEC by May.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.