Franklin Templeton Reveals Ethereum ETF Fee

By Andrew Throuvalas

Franklin Templeton has become the first asset manager to reveal the management fee on their proposed Ether spot ETF—and it's virtually non-existent.

Per an updated S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday, the Franklin Ethereum ETF will only charge customers 0.19% per year for holding Ether in their fund, a much lower rate than those assessed by global competitors that have already gone live.

“The sponsor’s fee is accrued daily at an annualized rate equal to 0.19% of the net asset value of the fund and is payable at least quarterly in arrears in U.S. dollars or in-kind or any combination thereof,” wrote Franklin.

That’s not all: the fund has also promised to waive all sponsor fees on its first $10 billion for the first six months after the fund goes live.

The ultra-low fee mimics that of Bitcoin spot ETFs that launched in January, where competing funds crunched each others’ numbers in a vicious fee war days before their products went live. Most now offer fees below 0.3%, with many—like Fidelity and VanEck—offering temporary fee waivers.

Franklin also launched a Bitcoin ETF at the time, but mostly lost the battle to competitors on both volume and assets. This time, the asset manager has wasted no time getting its fee rate out the door, driving its costs close to zero.

“For context, most ether spot ETFs in other countries or in other vehicles are >1%,” wrote Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas to Twitter on Friday. “The US ETF market is just special in its hardcore-ness but that’s why the vast majority of new investor cash [is] flowing here.”

As seen with the Bitcoin ETFs, a 1% discrepancy can make all the difference for customers. For example, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which chose to keep a relatively high fee of 1.5% in January, has already lost more than half of its Bitcoin in outflows.

Despite boasting over 600,000 BTC at launch, it has now lost its title of the world’s largest Bitcoin ETF to BlackRock’s much cheaper fund. Meanwhile, more expensive Bitcoin ETFs in Canada and Europe have also seen net outflows, despite rising demand for Bitcoin throughout the year.

In addition to Franklin, the SEC approved 19-b4 applications for seven other Ether spot ETFs last week. Experts say the funds are likely to go live on national securities exchanges within weeks.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.

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