Franklin Templeton has filed a Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch the Franklin XRP ETF, a proposed spot exchange-traded fund designed to track the price of XRP. The filing, submitted on March 11, 2025, marks another major step in the asset manager’s broader push into digital-asset investment products. If approved, the fund would allow investors to gain exposure to XRP through traditional brokerage accounts rather than by directly purchasing, storing, and managing the token themselves.
The proposal is built around the Franklin XRP Trust, a Delaware statutory trust formed on Feb. 28, 2025. Under the filing, the trust would hold actual XRP, making it a spot product rather than a futures-based vehicle. This structure is significant because it aims to give shareholders direct economic exposure to the market price of XRP while wrapping that exposure inside a familiar ETF format.
How the ETF Would Work
According to the filing, the XRP held by the trust would be safeguarded by Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC, while cash associated with the product would be managed by State Street Bank and Trust Company. Shares of the proposed fund are intended to trade on the Cboe BZX Exchange, one of the venues that has become increasingly active in crypto ETF listings.
The operational framework follows the standard mechanics used by many commodity- and crypto-linked ETFs. Authorized participants, including registered broker-dealers, would be able to create and redeem large blocks of shares using either XRP or cash, depending on the terms and operational procedures in place. Transaction costs tied to these activities would be borne by the authorized participants rather than the fund itself.
For valuation, the filing says the net asset value, or NAV, would be calculated daily using the CF Benchmarks Index. That benchmark aggregates trading data from several major venues, including Coinbase, Bitstamp, Kraken, and LMAX Digital. In addition to the daily NAV, the filing states that an intraday indicative value would be updated every 15 seconds during market hours, giving investors a near real-time estimate of the fund’s value as XRP prices move.
Coinbase’s Role in Pricing and Custody
One of the more notable details in the SEC filing is the scale of Coinbase’s influence in the pricing basket used for the benchmark. The document states that Coinbase represented 58% to 61% of the index’s trading volume in 2024. That concentration underscores how central Coinbase is both to the custody side of the product and to price formation within the benchmark methodology.
This dual role is likely to draw attention from market observers because institutional crypto products often depend heavily on a small number of infrastructure providers. At the same time, Franklin Templeton’s reliance on established names such as Coinbase Custody, State Street, and Cboe may help strengthen the product’s appeal to investors seeking a regulated, operationally familiar route into XRP exposure.
Fees, Expenses, and Potential Risks
The filing indicates that Franklin Templeton will charge an annual sponsor fee, although the exact percentage has been redacted from the public version of the registration statement. As described, that fee would cover ordinary fund expenses such as custody, administration, and legal costs up to a defined threshold.
However, the registration statement also makes clear that extraordinary expenses could fall on the fund. These may include litigation costs or regulatory penalties. In certain circumstances, the trust could need to sell XRP to satisfy those obligations, a process that could create taxable events for shareholders. That point highlights a practical issue often overlooked in simplified discussions of spot crypto ETFs: even when the wrapper is familiar, the underlying asset can still introduce unique tax, legal, and operational complexity.
The filing also outlines broader risk factors, including regulatory shifts, market volatility, and operational issues tied to the governance and functioning of the XRP blockchain. Even with progress in legal clarity around XRP, the product is not being presented as free from uncertainty. As with other digital-asset investment vehicles, the sponsor is signaling that approval alone would not eliminate the risks associated with the underlying market.
Regulatory Context Around XRP
The timing of the filing is important. It comes after a court ruling that XRP is not a security when sold on exchanges, a development that addressed a major point of contention in the long-running SEC case against Ripple Labs. That ruling has been widely viewed as a meaningful milestone for XRP’s regulatory standing in the United States, even though it did not resolve every possible legal and policy question around the asset.
For ETF issuers, that distinction matters. A spot product tied to an asset whose legal treatment has been under dispute naturally faces more scrutiny than one tied to a market with a more established regulatory path. Franklin Templeton’s filing suggests that the firm believes the environment has improved enough to justify pursuing a public investment vehicle directly linked to XRP.
Still, the registration statement does not assume a smooth or guaranteed path. It explicitly acknowledges that the regulatory environment can change and that future actions by agencies or courts could affect the fund, the market for XRP, or the mechanics by which the ETF operates.
Part of a Bigger Crypto ETF Expansion
The proposed XRP ETF fits into Franklin Templeton’s larger crypto strategy. The firm has already launched spot bitcoin and ether funds and has also filed for a Solana ETF. That makes the XRP proposal part of a broader effort by major asset managers to expand beyond the first wave of approved crypto products and build out a fuller suite of digital-asset offerings.
Franklin Templeton is not alone. The filing arrives as other firms, including Grayscale and 21Shares, pursue their own XRP ETF applications. The growing list of issuers seeking approval points to increasing institutional confidence that investor demand exists for regulated XRP exposure, especially through exchange-traded structures that fit easily within traditional portfolio management systems.
Competition in this category could become important if the SEC opens the door to multiple products. In that scenario, custody arrangements, benchmark design, sponsor fees, liquidity support, and brand reputation could all shape which products attract the most assets. For now, however, the first hurdle remains the same for all applicants: obtaining SEC approval.
Why the Filing Matters
If approved, the Franklin XRP ETF could significantly broaden access to XRP for both institutional and retail investors. Instead of setting up crypto exchange accounts, managing private keys, or handling token transfers, investors would be able to buy and sell shares through conventional brokerage channels. That convenience has been one of the central arguments behind the rise of spot crypto ETFs more broadly.
The filing also matters beyond a single product. The SEC’s eventual response could serve as an indicator of how U.S. regulators are thinking about the next generation of crypto-based financial products. A decision on an XRP ETF would likely be interpreted not only as a judgment on one asset, but also as a signal about the regulatory trajectory for altcoin-linked investment vehicles in the American market.
For now, Franklin Templeton has formally entered that race with a structure centered on physical XRP holdings, Coinbase custody, State Street cash management, and a planned Cboe BZX listing. Whether the product reaches the market will depend on the SEC’s review, but the filing itself shows that the competition to package more crypto assets into regulated, exchange-traded products is continuing to accelerate.