Franklin Templeton Files Bitcoin DRIP ETFs With SEC
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- Franklin Templeton filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on June 18, 2026, for the Franklin US Equity Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF and the Franklin US Innovation Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF, which would reinvest stock dividends into Bitcoin exposure using a rules-based index methodology.
- The proposed funds would launch with a 5% Bitcoin allocation and 95% US equities, with quarterly rebalances keeping the BTC sleeve within predefined limits and semiannual index reconstitutions.
- The Innovation ETF would track an index of the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on Nasdaq, while the Equity ETF would track a broad US large-cap index — both structured as passive ETFs tracking proprietary VettaFi indexes.
- The funds may gain Bitcoin exposure through Bitcoin exchange-traded products, futures, options, and Bitcoin-backed depositary receipts, with certain Bitcoin-related investments held through a wholly owned Cayman Islands subsidiary.
- The filing lands as US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded six consecutive weeks of net outflows between May 15 and June 18, according to SoSoValue data cited in the article.
- BlackRock filed the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF in January, Goldman Sachs followed in April with a Bitcoin income ETF built on covered-call strategies, and Hamilton ETFs filed a leveraged Bitcoin income fund in Canada in May — all part of a broader pivot toward income-generating Bitcoin products.
Why it matters: By converting stock dividends into incremental Bitcoin purchases, Franklin Templeton is layering crypto exposure onto traditional equity wrappers, giving stock investors automatic BTC accumulation without opening a separate crypto account. The timing matters: with six straight weeks of US spot Bitcoin ETF outflows, this integrated product is a bet that embedded equity-Bitcoin structures can pull new demand from the $50T+ US stock market rather than relying on standalone crypto buyers.
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