$1.7T Wall Street giant eyes turning dividends into Bitcoin

Franklin Templeton (NYSE: BEN) is an asset manager with $1.78 trillion in assets under management (AUM) as of May 31. On June 18, the Wall Street giant filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch two new exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The proposed ETFs, called the Franklin US Equity Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF and the Franklin US Innovation Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF, seek to reinvest U.S. equity dividends into Bitcoin (BTC). Related: Nobel-winning economist has stark Bitcoin warning for SpaceX bulls The funds aim to track the performance of the VettaFi U.S. Innovation 100 Index and the VettaFi U.S. Large-Cap 500 Bitcoin DRIP Index. The funds would reinvest the dividends from these equities in Bitcoin, as per the SEC filing. The ETFs aim to gain Bitcoin exposure through a mix of exchange-traded products (ETPs), futures and options contracts, or other financial instruments tied to BTC. More on Franklin Templeton: How Franklin Templeton plans Bitcoin allocation Each ETF will allocate 95% of the funds to U.S. large-cap equities and 5% to Bitcoin. The Bitcoin allocation in the underlying index would be evaluated on a quarterly basis. If the allocation exceeds 5%, it will be trimmed down to 4.5%. If it drops below 5%, the allocation remains unchanged. If the allocation exceeds 20% at any close between quarterly rebalances, it will be trimmed down to 4.5%. The asset manager already issues a U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF called the Franklin Bitcoin ETF (CBOE: EZBC) which holds around $359 million in net assets as of June 18, as per SoSoValue. The fund has lost 25% of its value in the last six months and was trading at $36.38 at press time. BTC/USD, Source: Decibel Bitcoin, on the other hand, has lost 28% of its value during the same period and was trading at $63,137, as per Decibel. Related: Billionaire with 70% of portfolio in Bitcoin makes bold prediction This story was originally published by TheStreet on Jun 19, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.



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