Today in crypto, Franklin Templeton filed for two US exchange-traded funds designed to convert stock dividends into Bitcoin exposure, Binance’s European Union license application raised questions about the influence of the bloc’s institutions, and Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky permanently lost the ability to trade on US commodities markets.
Franklin Templeton pursues Bitcoin-linked ETFs
Asset manager Franklin Templeton has filed for two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that would convert dividend income from US stocks into exposure to Bitcoin, expanding the range of institutional investment products tied to the digital asset.
According to filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Franklin US Equity Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF and Franklin US Innovation Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF would track indexes that automatically reinvest dividends, allocating 95% of assets to US equities and 5% to Bitcoin.
The funds could gain Bitcoin exposure through several instruments, including spot Bitcoin ETFs, futures contracts and Bitcoin-backed depository receipts.
The filing comes as demand for Bitcoin investment products has cooled markedly in recent months, highlighting a slowdown in institutional appetite. According to SoSoValue, US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded six consecutive weeks of net outflows through June 18.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded heavy outflows since mid-May. Source: SoSoValue
Binance’s MiCA fight raises questions over ECB influence
Binance’s faltering EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) license application in Greece has raised questions about whether the bloc’s central bank may have played an informal role in the process, despite not having formal authority over licensing decisions.
Even though MiCA assigns approval of crypto-asset service provider (CASP) licenses to national competent authorities, lawyers told Cointelegraph that its wording does not prevent other EU institutions, including the European Central Bank (ECB), from communicating with those regulators during the review process.
Source: EUR-Lex
“Nothing in the MiCA framework would prevent a third party like the ECB from offering its opinion to that national authority on Binance’s application,” David Lesperance, founder at Lesperance & Associates, told Cointelegraph.
The Big Whale reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources, that ECB President Christine Lagarde had signaled to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis that Binance was not welcome in Europe. The report followed a Reuters story on Tuesday that Greece’s market regulator was set to reject Binance’s MiCA application.
The reports surfaced less than two weeks before the end of MiCA’s transitional period on July 1, a deadline that will determine which crypto firms can continue operating across the EU under its licensing regime.
CFTC permanently bans Celsius’ Mashinsky from trading
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission resolved its yearslong legal battle against Celsius Network founder Alex Mashinsky on Thursday, permanently banning him from registering with it and trading in markets it oversees.
Earlier this year, the CFTC and the US Securities and Exchange Commission issued guidance saying they considered most major cryptocurrencies to be commodities, and Mashinsky’s ban means he will never be able to trade commodities, futures and derivatives.
Source: CFTC
The settlement ends, what the CFTC said when it filed it in 2023, was its first case against a digital asset lending platform and marks the end of one of the last remaining regulatory actions pending against Mashinsky.
Mashinsky was sentenced to 12 years in prison in May 2025 after pleading guilty to securities and commodities fraud for misleading Celsius’ customers about the safety of the crypto lending platform, which collapsed during a major market drawdown in 2022.
He still faces charges filed by the SEC in July 2023. The regulator told a federal court in late May that it has “engaged in substantive settlement discussions” with Mashinsky, but no agreement had been reached.