Franklin Templeton’s proposed Bitcoin dividend reinvestment ETFs would turn stock dividends into Bitcoin exposure while keeping most of their portfolios in US equities. The asset manager filed exchange registrations for two funds on October 22, 2026, taking a step toward Nasdaq trading. Neither fund is trading yet.
Key takeaways
- Franklin’s proposed Nasdaq tickers are FBEQ and FIBT.
- The underlying indexes begin with a 95% stock allocation and 5% Bitcoin exposure.
- Dividend reinvestment builds Bitcoin exposure; scheduled and threshold-triggered resets reduce it.
- Shareholders would receive fund shares, not Bitcoin coins.
Franklin’s Bitcoin dividend reinvestment ETFs move toward Nasdaq
Filed on October 22, the Form 8-A lists shares for Nasdaq under both the Franklin US Equity Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF and the Franklin US Innovation Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF. This is an exchange-registration step, not confirmation that trading has started.
The prospectus proposes FBEQ for the equity fund and FIBT for the innovation fund, with a proposed effective date of October 27, 2026. Franklin first proposed the products in June and subsequently amended its registration documents.
Stock portfolios supply the dividends for Bitcoin exposure
The Bitcoin dividend reinvestment ETFs would track separate VettaFi indexes that begin with 95% US equities and 5% Bitcoin-related investments. Both use the same dividend mechanism but draw their stock holdings from different universes.
The equity fund would follow the VettaFi US Large-Cap 500 Bitcoin DRIP Index, which selects from 500 major publicly traded US companies. The innovation fund would focus on 100 large US companies drawn from an innovation-oriented Nasdaq stock universe.
Under the index rules, regular and special stock dividends go toward Bitcoin exposure at the market open on the business day following the relevant ex-dividend date. The reinvestment decision is therefore built into the strategy rather than left to shareholders each time a dividend arrives.
Two rules reduce the Bitcoin allocation
Quarterly rebalancing reduces a Bitcoin weighting above 5% to 4.5%, with the remaining portfolio allocation going to equities. A separate threshold triggers an adjustment between those scheduled reviews.
Should Bitcoin exposure climb above 20%, the rules mandate that it be brought back down to 4.5% by the close of the second business day following the breach. The quarterly test and the between-review trigger are distinct parts of the allocation policy.
Bitcoin’s value within these indexes is determined by the Kaiko Bitcoin New York Reference Rate, calculated at 4 p.m. Eastern Time.
Fund shares rather than Bitcoin in a wallet
Investors in the proposed Bitcoin dividend reinvestment ETFs would own exchange-traded fund shares rather than receive Bitcoin directly. The funds can reproduce their index exposure through Bitcoin-linked investment products and derivatives.
The equity version lists an annual management fee of 0.09%. Share values would reflect the performance of the underlying stocks and Bitcoin-related instruments, with most of the initial allocation tied to equities.
That structure differs from Franklin’s existing Bitcoin ETF, EZBC. Franklin describes EZBC as holding Bitcoin and cash, providing more concentrated Bitcoin exposure than the proposed stock-heavy DRIP funds.
Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.