$1.5 Trillion Asset Manager Franklin Templeton Explores New Crypto Fund For Solana, XRP, Shiba Inu

$1.64 trillion Wall Street asset manager Franklin Templeton is mulling the launch of a new private fund that would invest in tokens other than Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

Franklin Templeton Eyes Altcoin-Focused Crypto Fund

According to a June 6 report from The Information citing anonymous individuals with knowledge of the plans, the private fund will target institutional investors and will be dedicated to altcoins like Solana, XRP, Shiba Inu, Cardano, and the like.

Franklin Templeton is no stranger to the crypto ecosystem. The Wall Street titan forayed into the digital assets world in 2018. It introduced a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in mid-January and has also applied to offer a similar offering for the industry’s second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum. In fact, Franklin Templeton was recently the first issuer to announce its sponsor fees for its spot ETH ETF in its updated S-1 statement.

“We are excited about ETH and its ecosystem. Despite the midlife crisis it’s recently experienced, we see a bright future with many strong tailwinds to push the Ethereum ecosystem forward,” the company previously stated in an X post.

By venturing beyond the top two major crypto assets, the asset management firm is signaling comfort with the class of tokens that the SEC has long deemed unregistered securities.

While the report does not indicate which altcoins in particular would be included in the new crypto fund’s basket, Franklin Templeton has publicly hailed the growth of the Solana network in 2024, commending Anatoly Yakovenko’s vision of “a single atomic state machine as a powerful use case of decentralized blockchains.”

Staking Rewards And Global Expansion

Franklin’s Thursday announcement comes after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s shocking approval of key regulatory filings related to the spot Ether ETF applications in late May — despite the top financial cop having reportedly classed Ethereum internally as an unregistered security for more than a year. 

Notably, staking rewards were not included in the proposed Ether funds when the SEC gave its regulatory blessing to the first stage of applications last month. However, Franklin Templeton is considering offering investors staking rewards with the new altcoin fund.

Although Franklin Templeton’s spot BTC ETF has not been as successful as the financial instruments offered by peers BlackRock and Fidelity, the report noted that the company is keen to grow its crypto assets business outside the US.