- Franklin Templeton is on track to launch an altcoin fund to deepen its crypto footprint.
- While actual tokens has not been unveiled, Shiba Inu and XRP may make the list.
Franklin Templeton, a firm managing $1.6 trillion in assets, is considering making investments in altcoins other than Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). This potential expansion has sparked optimism among market analysts regarding the growth prospects of Shiba Inu (SHIB) and XRP.
Franklin Templeton’s Crypto Venture
According to an anonymous source familiar with the matter, Franklin Templeton is contemplating launching a new crypto altcoin fund. As revealed by the source, the asset manager may include staking rewards if the proposal eventually pulls through.
Franklin Templeton’s new venture into altcoin investment does not come as a shock to the market. The firm is among other notable traditional institutions that are marking their territory in the crypto ecosystem. The asset manager recently ventured into spot Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF), assets tokenization, and it’s among applicants approved for a spot Ethereum ETF.
So far, Franklin Templeton’s spot Bitcoin ETF (EZBC), launched alongside others from BlackRock and Grayscale Investments has become a success. According to current data, EZBC boasts inflows of over $350 million.
Franklin Templeton’s foray into asset tokenization began with a US government bond fund on the Stellar (XLM) network. With this move, the asset manager takes precedence from similar initiatives by BlackRock, the deployment of blockchain technology demonstrates Franklin Templeton’s commitment to enhancing the flexibility and efficiency of financial services.
Hopes for Shiba Inu and XRP
Meanwhile, Franklin Templeton has yet to disclose the specific altcoins for its potential fund. However, the crypto community is filled with expectations of the asset manager launching with SHIB and XRP, based on their large market capitalization.
In addition to dominance, XRP and SHIB easily emerge as a target considering their widespread appeal amongst crypto enthusiasts. Moreover, XRP has been forecasted as the next crypto to gain regulatory approval for a spot ETF. Ripple’s President Monica Long says the potential XRP ETF launch is a strategic development for the company.
On the other hand, SHIB witnessed a substantial uptick in the past month, driven by recent developments in its ecosystem. Burn rate for SHIB tokens has increased sharply, with millions of tokens destroyed from the ecosystem. According to data from Shibburn, the network burned over 4.8 million tokens in seven transactions on June 5.
Despite this effort aimed at improving the ecosystem, the price of SHIB is still lagging. Within the past 24 hours, SHIB’s price dropped by 6.8% to trade at $0.00002319.
However, with Shiba Inu being a potential beneficiary of Franklin Templeton’s altcoin fund, the memecoin could recover and be set on a bullish momentum in the long term, propelled by increased adoption.
Likewise, this bullish movement could also happen for XRP. At press time XRP is trading at $0.4931, down by 6% in the past day. However, the trading volume increased by 77.6% to over $2 billion.
