Two weeks after their launch, the total transactions involving spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are already flying by the billions. These financial instruments logged a trading volume of over $14 billion at the start of this week and a huge chunk of these were traced back to heavyweights like BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale. Other players like Franklin Templeton, however, were playing catch-up with their powerhouse rivals.
A Matter of Time
Franklin Templeton has been in the business since 1947 and has already accumulated up to $1.53 trillion in assets under management (AUM) from millions of clients in 160 countries. This makes it one of the established players in the realm of asset management.
The Franklin Bitcoin ETF (EZBC) came in late in the party last year but it was one of the 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission on January 10. Yet, only those from the likes of BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale were the ones flooded with billions of funds. In fact, the three alone made up around 90% of the overall trading volume of the new asset class. The rest, including Franklin Templeton, had to contend with the scraps left by the remaining 10%.
On Monday, EZBC recorded $101 million worth of transactions, which were pretty impressive figures at face value. But then again, if we take into consideration the $14 billion trading volume of spot Bitcoin ETFs during that time, the numbers only made up 0.72% of the total float. Despite lagging behind the big three, Franklin Templeton remains optimistic about its new ETF product.
Franklin Templeton Head of Digital Assets Roger Bayston expressed his confidence that their digital investment vehicle will eventually pick up as more investors and financial advisers become more familiar with them.
“It’s just a matter of time … as education moves forward about how these assets complement and help deliver potentially better long-term solutions alongside of other assets in their portfolio,” said the exec in an interview with The Block.
“You have a brand new product that has never existed before,” Bayston added. “These platforms are doing their fiduciary responsibilities to filter through those providers and find differentiations that end up making sure that their clients have the best long-term results… that’s the process that is occurring right now.”
Bitcoin Now
As of this writing at 6:30 AM UTC, Bitcoin is still reeling from the effects of the “sell the news” event that took place upon the approval of its related US spot ETFs. After hitting a one-month low of $38K yesterday, it is now edging closer to recovering the $40K territory as it trades around $39,830.
Experts predict that BTC will continue to move on the downside, but there’s hope that it will pop up once the trading for the halving begins next month, which will coincide with the 2024 Super Bowl.