Franklin Templeton launches ETFs blending stocks, Bitcoin
6.6 Investments Franklin Templeton’s new ETFs, FBEQ and FIBT, combine U.S. equities with Bitcoin by reinvesting dividends, offering investors exposure to both assets in one product.
Franklin Templeton has introduced two new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Nasdaq: the Franklin U.S. Equity Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF (FBEQ) and the Franklin U.S. Innovation Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF (FIBT). These ETFs blend U.S. equity exposure with Bitcoin by automatically reinvesting dividends from their underlying stocks into Bitcoin. Each fund starts with a 95% allocation to its respective equity index and 5% to Bitcoin, with quarterly rebalancing to maintain Bitcoin as a secondary allocation. FBEQ tracks around 500 of the largest U.S. companies and charges a 0.09% annual fee, while FIBT focuses on 100 major non-financial Nasdaq-listed firms with a 0.19% fee. The funds gain indirect Bitcoin exposure through affiliated exchange-traded products and derivatives, not by direct Bitcoin purchases. This structure enables investors to access both traditional equities and Bitcoin in a single ETF, streamlining portfolio diversification and potentially boosting mainstream Bitcoin adoption.
