Bitcoin ETF fee war continues as Franklin Templeton undercuts Bitwise

Financial services giant undercuts previous low mark set by Bitwise a day after first spot BTC funds launch in the US

article-image

Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson | Cole Burston/Fortune/"Fortune Global Forum 2023″ (CC license)

share

Bitwise had the lowest spot bitcoin ETF fee yesterday.

Franklin Templeton now appears to have that claim — at least for the moment. 

The financial services giant revealed a fee of 0.19% for its Franklin Bitcoin ETF, undercutting Bitwise’s previous low mark of 0.20%. The firm had previously put the price point for its fund at 0.29%.

Franklin Templeton is also set to waive the fund fee — like Bitwise and some other rivals — until Aug. 2, up to $10 billion in fund assets, the Friday disclosure states.

Read more: Bitcoin ETF Tracker

Ten US spot bitcoin ETFs launched Thursday a day after the US Securities and Exchange Commission cleared such funds to start trading for the first time. 

The Franklin Templeton fund saw trading volumes of roughly 2.4 million shares, or about $65 million, on its first day trading. The volumes trailed those seen by similar offerings by Grayscale, BlackRock and Fidelity. 

Read more: Spot bitcoin ETF volumes eclipse $4.5B on first day of trading

“We’re excited and encouraged by the strong investor interest we’re seeing for spot bitcoin ETFs,” David Mann, Franklin Templeton’s head of ETF product and capital markets told Blockworks in an email. “We think this sends a clear signal to investors: We’re here for the long run.” 

A spokesperson declined to comment further. 

The latest fee change comes as fund issuers had jockeyed for position in the weeks before launch, spurring fee compression seen as a win for investors

A majority of the firms placed their spot bitcoin ETF fees at or below 0.30% on launch day Thursday, with BlackRock and Ark Invest dropping fees as late as approval day on Wednesday. 


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research

article-image

Conferences are pop-up innovation clusters—and filters for the riff-raff

article-image

Tariff front-running may have caused an artificial bounce in economic data earlier this year

article-image

Waka Flocka Flame-linked BaseDrop is raising some eyebrows

article-image

IPO’ing onchain, Ethereum scaling, and using AI for ZK

article-image

A Brexit-themed celebration of Bitcoin’s catchphrases

article-image

Judge Analisa Torres said the parties have not demonstrated that vacating her prior ruling is in the best interest of the public