Franklin Templeton enters the competition for Ethereum ETFs.

Franklin Templeton, a prominent Wall Street firm, has joined the race to launch an Ether (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States. The asset management company, which manages assets worth $1.5 trillion, submitted the S-1 filing to the United States Securities Exchange Commission on February 12. If approved, the ETF will be listed as “Franklin Ethereum ETF” on the Chicago Board Options Exchange. Franklin Templeton has expressed its intention to stake a portion of the ETF’s Ether to generate additional income. This move is similar to ARK 21Shares’ revised S-1 filing last week. Franklin plans to stake Ether from the trust’s cold storage wallets and earn staking rewards as income. Other firms, including BlackRock, VanEck, Fidelity, Invesco Galaxy, Grayscale, and Hashdex, are also competing for SEC approval for their spot Ether ETF applications. The SEC has set deadlines for deciding on these applications, with the earliest decision expected by May 23. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart predicts that all applicants will receive a decision by that date, drawing a parallel to the SEC’s decision on spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 10. Another Bloomberg ETF analyst, Eric Balchunas, has lowered the chances of a spot Ether ETF approval in 2024 from 70% to 60%. Franklin Templeton recently launched a spot Bitcoin ETF, and although it entered the spot Ether ETF race later, it has shown interest in the fundamentals of Ethereum, Solana, and other blockchains. This suggests that the firm may consider expanding beyond Bitcoin.