Goldman Sachs to Acquire NEOS for Up to $2.25B to Expand Crypto ETF Offerings

Goldman Sachs is fast-tracking its entry into crypto yield products with a deal to acquire ETF specialist NEOS Investments in a cash-and-equity transaction worth up to $2.25 billion, the bank announced Tuesday. The purchase — contingent on meeting certain performance and service targets and subject to regulatory approval — is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027. The deal folds NEOS’s roughly $30 billion in options-based, derivative-income ETFs into Goldman Sachs Asset Management, instantly giving the Wall Street firm scale in a booming corner of the market. NEOS is best known for BTCI, its flagship Bitcoin covered-call fund that has grown to about $1 billion in assets since launch. The firm also manages a similar Ethereum covered-call product — handing Goldman a ready-made suite of crypto income offerings. Covered-call strategies generate monthly yield by selling (writing) options against an underlying asset — in this case Bitcoin or Ethereum — which provides income but limits some upside if the asset rallies. That structure aligns with Goldman’s April filing for a Bitcoin Premium ETF, a vehicle designed to produce income by writing options tied to spot Bitcoin ETFs. At the time, analysts suggested Goldman might be trying to leapfrog competitors such as BlackRock; acquiring NEOS is a far quicker way to gain market share than building new products from scratch. NEOS’s co-founders Garrett Paolella and Troy Cates will join Goldman Sachs Asset Management as partners once the transaction closes. Goldman framed the acquisition around NEOS’s broader income and outcome strategies, and CEO David Solomon — who has previously said he holds “very little, but some” Bitcoin — positioned the move as strengthening the firm’s options- and income-focused capabilities. The timing is notable: derivative-income ETFs have exploded in popularity, expanding to roughly $180 billion in assets with a compound annual growth rate above 70% since 2021, according to Morningstar. Crypto strategies have become an increasingly visible slice of that growth as issuers race to wrap Bitcoin and Ethereum in yield-bearing formats. For Goldman, the purchase provides an immediate foothold in digital-asset ETFs and established product distribution, accelerating its push into the crypto ETF market while absorbing an experienced manager and an existing investor base. Regulators will have the final say before the deal can close, but if completed, the acquisition would mark a major step in Wall Street’s embrace of crypto yield products.