Goldman Sachs has agreed to buy options-income ETF specialist NEOS Investments for up to $2.25 billion in cash and equity. The deal gives Goldman ready-made bitcoin and ether income products rather than building its own, according to CoinDesk.
The acquisition brings Goldman the BTCI bitcoin income ETF, which crossed $1 billion in net assets less than two years after its October 2024 launch, per NEOS’s website. Also included are the XBCI boosted bitcoin fund and the NEHI ethereum fund. Combined with Goldman’s existing platform and the December purchase of Innovator Capital Management, total ETF assets under supervision would exceed $130 billion as of June 30, Goldman said in a statement.
Goldman ranks eighth among active ETF managers globally after the combination.
NEOS runs a $30 billion platform. It spans 19 options-based income funds covering U.S. stock indexes, bitcoin, ether, and gold. The three crypto funds do not hold bitcoin or ether directly. They gain exposure through exchange-traded products linked to the assets and sell options on those positions to generate monthly income, The Block reported.
The deal is structured as cash and equity, subject to performance and service targets. Goldman expects to close the transaction in the first quarter of 2027. Regulatory approval is pending.
David Solomon, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, said in a statement: “As investor demand for active ETFs grows, NEOS’ disciplined investment approach is highly complementary to our capabilities across buffer, managed outcome and income strategies.”
NEOS co-founders Troy Cates and Garrett Paolella will join Goldman Sachs Asset Management as partners after closing. The rest of NEOS’s investment and client-service teams are expected to follow, The Block reported.
The move reframes a filing Goldman made on April 14. That day, it registered the Goldman Sachs Bitcoin Premium Income ETF with the SEC. The product was a covered-call vehicle structurally similar to what NEOS already runs. Goldman has not said whether the NEOS acquisition changes those plans.
Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, wrote on X: “Nowww I get why GS never launched the BTC covered call product they filed months ago. Better to leapfrog [BlackRock’s BITA] vs me too?”
The target of that leapfrog has a smaller footprint. BlackRock launched the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (BITA) on Nasdaq on June 16. BITA holds about $59 million in net assets, per blackrock.com. It sells covered calls on 25-35% of its IBIT holdings, targets 15-25% annual yield, and charges a 0.65% expense ratio.
BTCI, by contrast, runs roughly $1.1 billion. It yields about 27%, according to Bloomberg data. Its expense ratio is 0.99%. The fund is down about 42.55% over the past year, with a 52-week high of $65.87.
The derivative-income ETF category has grown to roughly $180 billion in assets industry-wide. It has compounded at more than 70% annually since 2021, Morningstar data cited by Goldman showed.
NEOS was founded in 2022. The deal follows Goldman’s roughly $2 billion acquisition of Innovator Capital Management, which closed in April 2026 and added ETFs that use options to limit downside while offering income, The Block reported.
That shopping list leaves out the exact cash-to-equity split. The $2.25 billion figure is a ceiling contingent on performance targets Goldman did not detail.
David Solomon has previously described himself as holding “very little, but some” bitcoin, Decrypt noted.
