Goldman Sachs to Acquire NEOS Investments in Deal Worth Up to $2.25 Billion

Goldman Sachs agreed to acquire NEOS Investments, the asset manager behind a $1.1 billion Bitcoin income exchange-traded fund, in a cash-and-equity deal valuing the firm at up to $2.25 billion. The deal, disclosed Wednesday, gives Goldman an existing foothold in the fast-growing derivative income ETF market rather than requiring it to build a competing product from scratch.

Deal Terms and What Goldman Is Buying

Goldman said in a statement that the acquisition is subject to performance targets and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, pending regulatory approval. The deal brings NEOS co-founders Troy Cates and Garrett Paolella into Goldman as partners once it closes.

Beyond the flagship Bitcoin fund, the acquisition hands Goldman a $30 billion options-based ETF platform spanning 19 funds, one of the fastest-growing lineups in the industry, according to the company’s statement. 

Combined with Goldman’s existing $40 billion in options-based ETF assets and its previously announced acquisition of Innovator Capital Management in December, the deal pushes Goldman’s total ETF assets above $130 billion. That total is enough to rank it eighth among active ETF managers globally, the statement said.

A Product Goldman Had Already Planned to Build Itself

Goldman filed with the SEC on April 14 to launch its own Bitcoin Premium Income ETF, a structurally similar covered-call product. That filing never resulted in a launch. Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, said in a post on X that Wednesday’s acquisition explains why. Balchunas wrote: 

“Better to leapfrog BlackRock’s $BITA vs me too?” 

He argued that buying an established fund let Goldman skip past a crowded field of similar filings and move directly to competing with BlackRock’s rival product.

How BTCI’s Covered-Call Strategy Works, and Its Recent Performance

NEOS’s fund, ticker BTCI, launched in October 2024 and crossed $1 billion in assets in under two years, according to Balchunas. The fund does not hold Bitcoin directly. Instead, it holds spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products and sells call options against those positions to generate monthly distributions, yielding roughly 27% at current levels.

That structure carries trade-offs. Investors collect the yield but give up some of the upside if Bitcoin’s price rallies sharply, since the sold call options cap potential gains. BTCI has fallen about 42.55% over the past year, with shares dropping from a 52-week high of $65.87 to around $28.40, according to data Balchunas cited from a Bloomberg terminal. 

The fund charges a 0.99% expense ratio. Its SEC prospectus states that BTCI’s distributions may in part represent a return of capital rather than net investment income, a distinction the fund flags for income-focused investors evaluating the yield.

How Goldman’s New Fund Compares to BlackRock’s BITA

BlackRock launched its own Bitcoin income fund, BITA, on Nasdaq on June 16, roughly two months after Goldman’s initial ETF filing. BITA targets an annual yield of 15% to 25% and sells covered calls on 25% to 35% of its IBIT holdings, with an expense ratio of 0.65%, lower than BTCI’s.

A senior ETF analyst who asked not to be named said the acquisition reflects Goldman’s broader push into ETFs beyond crypto specifically, noting that the Bitcoin fund is just one of nearly 20 in the NEOS lineup. The analyst framed the deal as evidence that “Bitcoin is just part of the financial world,” alongside stocks and bonds.

Consolidation in a Fast-Growing Corner of the ETF Market

The derivative income ETF category has grown to roughly $180 billion in assets industry-wide, compounding at more than 70% annually since 2021, according to Morningstar data cited in Goldman’s statement.

Buying an established platform, rather than building market share from scratch, illustrates the level of competition new entrants face in the category.