Franklin Templeton files S-1 for 'Crypto Index ETF' holding BTC and ETH, following Hashdex

Investment firm Franklin Templeton filed an S-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday proposing a new exchange-traded fund which would hold both bitcoin and ether and trade under the ticker EZPZ. 

The ETF, dubbed the Franklin Crypto Index ETF, would initially hold a yet-unspecified allocation of bitcoin and ether weighted by the market capitalization of each digital asset. The proposed fund would use Coinbase as its digital asset custodian. 

According to the S-1 filing, additional digital assets could be added to the ETF in the future should the fund receive regulatory approval. Exchange Cboe BZX, on which Franklin Templeton's EZPZ would also trade, filed forms seeking regulatory approval for ETFs that hold Solana in July, though some crypto pundits have expressed skepticism that Solana ETF could be approved under the current political administration. 

Franklin-Templeton's filing follows that of Hashdex, which filed its own S-1 for a similarly structured ETF on July 24, two days after spot Ethereum ETFs received approval to begin trading. Recently, the SEC postponed its decision over Hashdex's filing. The agency gave itself until September 30, 2024, to take action on the proposed rule change.