Franklin Templeton is moving closer to offering investors a combined US stock and Bitcoin portfolio that uses dividend reinvestment to build crypto exposure automatically. On October 22, the firm filed Form 8-A to register shares of the Franklin US Equity Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF and Franklin US Innovation Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF for Nasdaq trading.
The filing represents an exchange-registration step and does not indicate either fund has begun trading. The prospectus filing proposes an October 27 effective date.
Fund Structure and Mechanics
The equity version carries the ticker FBEQ with an annual management fee of 0.09%, while the innovation version uses FIBT with a 0.19% fee. Both funds track VettaFi indexes that begin with a 95% equity and 5% Bitcoin allocation.
Under the proposed mechanism, regular and special equity dividends automatically reinvest into Bitcoin at the following day's open after the ex-dividend date. This approach consolidates two investment decisions into a single fund.
Rebalancing Safeguards
Quarterly rebalancing reduces any Bitcoin weighting above 5% back to 4.5%. A separate rule triggers a reset to 4.5% at the close of the second business day if Bitcoin weighting breaches 20% between quarterly reviews. This corrective mechanism does not guarantee the allocation cannot temporarily exceed 20%.
The funds may use Bitcoin-linked investment products and derivatives to replicate index exposure. Shareholders would own ETF shares rather than hold Bitcoin directly in personal wallets.
Distinction From Existing Offerings
Franklin already offers a more concentrated Bitcoin exposure through its Bitcoin ETF, EZBC, which holds Bitcoin and cash with value closely dependent on the coin's market performance. The proposed DRIP funds would instead maintain most assets in equities, meaning stock selection and benchmark performance could influence overall returns more than modest Bitcoin price movements.
The next milestone is the funds becoming effective and opening for trading. Until that point, the filings represent planned allocation strategies, fees, and safeguards rather than live performance data.
