USDGoldman Sachs to Buy NEOS for Up to $2.25 Billion
Deal gives Goldman an established options-income ETF platform and immediate crypto fund exposure
TL;DR
- Goldman Sachs agreed to acquire NEOS Investments in a cash-and-equity transaction worth up to $2.25 billion.
- The acquisition adds NEOS’s options-income ETF business, including established Bitcoin and Ethereum products, to Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
- The transaction requires regulatory approval and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027.
Trade smarter on Jupiter, Solana’s leading DEX built for fast execution and deep liquidity.
Swap tokens at competitive rates, route across multiple liquidity sources automatically, and access perpetuals, DCA, and advanced trading tools — all in one place!
Goldman Sachs has agreed to acquire NEOS Investments, an options-based income ETF manager, in a cash-and-equity transaction worth up to $2.25 billion, expanding Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s active ETF business while giving it an established foothold in Bitcoin and Ethereum income products. The purchase price is a maximum amount tied to NEOS meeting certain performance and service targets, and the transaction remains subject to regulatory approval.
NEOS Investments was founded in 2022 and operates from Westport, Connecticut. The firm oversees about $30 billion across 19 exchange-traded funds that use options strategies to generate income, according to figures from Goldman Sachs. Once the acquisition is completed, Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s ETF assets are expected to reach about $130 billion, placing the bank eighth among active ETF managers.
David Solomon, Goldman Sachs’ chairman and CEO, said NEOS brings “a disciplined investment approach” that is “highly complementary” to Goldman’s existing strategies. Solomon has also previously described his personal Bitcoin holdings as “very little, but some.”
NEOS brings an established Bitcoin income business
The acquisition gives Goldman an operating crypto-income ETF business rather than requiring it to rely solely on new product launches. NEOS’s flagship Bitcoin covered-call fund, BTCI, has accumulated around $1 billion in assets since launch and is one of the firm’s key digital-asset products.
BTCI is designed to generate monthly income by selling options against Bitcoin exposure. That structure provides investors with option-derived income while limiting some potential upside when Bitcoin rises sharply. NEOS also operates a similar Ethereum-focused product, extending the acquired crypto exposure beyond Bitcoin.
Goldman had already filed in April 2026 for its own Bitcoin Premium ETF, a product designed to generate income by writing options tied to spot Bitcoin ETFs. The structure had prompted speculation that Goldman was seeking to move ahead of a comparable BlackRock filing. Acquiring NEOS provides a faster route into the segment by adding established funds, assets and investment operations rather than waiting for a newly launched Goldman product to build scale.
The official framing of the transaction centered more broadly on NEOS’s income and outcome strategies rather than crypto alone. Still, the purchase places existing Bitcoin and Ethereum options-income products inside Goldman Sachs Asset Management and adds them to a broader ETF expansion already underway.
We’ve launched the all-new COIN360 Perp DEX, built for traders who move fast!
Trade 130+ assets with up to 100× leverage, enjoy instant order placement and low-slippage swaps, and earn USDC passive yield while climbing the leaderboard. Your trades deserve more than speed — they deserve mastery.
Derivative-income ETFs drive Goldman’s expansion
Derivative-income ETFs have grown into a major segment of the asset-management market. The category now holds around $180 billion in assets and has recorded a compound annual growth rate greater than 70% since 2021. Morningstar was cited for those figures in one supplied account, while another attributed the same market figures to Goldman.
Marc Nachmann, who is in charge of Goldman’s asset management arm, called derivative-income ETFs “a fast-growing space in the asset-management business” and said the segment has room to expand further.
Goldman has also been expanding its options-oriented ETF business through acquisitions. About twelve months before the NEOS agreement, the bank spent $2 billion to acquire Innovator Capital Management, a specialist in defined-outcome funds. Goldman has presented Innovator, NEOS and its existing ETF lineup as parts of a broader push into options-based investment strategies.
Goldman’s asset and wealth management unit supervised $4.04 trillion at the end of the second quarter and generated $4.60 billion in revenue during the period, up 20% from a year earlier. Goldman also reported about $4 trillion in assets under supervision as of June 30, 2026.
NEOS leadership and staff will move to Goldman
NEOS co-founders Troy Cates and Garrett Paolella are expected to become partners at Goldman Sachs Asset Management after the transaction closes. Goldman also expects NEOS’s broader team, including investment and client-service personnel, to move to the bank with the business.
Goldman Sachs’ Global Banking & Markets division served as the bank’s financial adviser on the acquisition. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Willkie Farr & Gallagher handled legal work for Goldman.
Barclays served as NEOS’s exclusive financial adviser, while Ropes & Gray acted as legal counsel to NEOS.
The transaction would give Goldman both NEOS’s existing ETF assets and the personnel responsible for running and servicing the strategies. It would also build on Goldman’s previous acquisition of Innovator Capital Management as the bank expands its active, options-based and derivative-income ETF operations.
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
