Goldman Sachs agreed to acquire NEOS Investments in a deal worth up to $2.25 billion, adding about $30 billion in options-based income ETFs, including one of the market's largest Bitcoin covered-call funds.

The purchase gives Goldman a ready-made crypto income ETF business, offering a much faster route than its own April filing for a Bitcoin Premium ETF, which some analysts viewed as an attempt to move ahead of a similar BlackRock product.

The transaction comes amid a surge in derivative-income ETFs, a category that now has roughly $180 billion in assets and has grown at a rate of more than 70% annually since 2021, according to Morningstar. Crypto has become an increasingly significant part of that market, giving large asset managers another way to package Bitcoin and Ethereum exposure through income-focused products.

Goldman Sachs is buying its way into crypto income funds with the acquisition of NEOS Investments, the ETF specialist behind one of the market's largest Bitcoin covered-call products.

The Wall Street firm said Tuesday that the cash-and-equity purchase is contingent on certain performance and service targets. Once completed, NEOS's roughly $30 billion in options-based income ETFs will be folded into Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, pending regulatory approval. Although Goldman framed the announcement around NEOS's broader derivative-income platform rather than crypto specifically, the acquisition gives the bank a foothold in digital-asset ETFs it had already been building toward.

That foothold comes through NEOS's flagship Bitcoin covered-call fund, BTCI, which has gathered about $1 billion in assets since its launch. The strategy produces monthly income by selling options against Bitcoin exposure, giving investors yield in exchange for limiting some upside. NEOS also runs a similar Ethereum product, giving Goldman immediate scale in a niche it had only recently entered on paper.

Goldman filed in April for its own Bitcoin Premium ETF, a fund intended to generate income by writing options tied to spot Bitcoin ETFs. As Decrypt reported at the time, the structure led some analysts to speculate that Goldman was trying to leapfrog a comparable BlackRock filing. Acquiring NEOS outright offers a much faster path, allowing Goldman to absorb an established manager and its crypto funds rather than waiting for a new product to gain traction.

The acquisition arrives as derivative-income ETFs become one of the fastest-growing areas of the market. Morningstar said the category has expanded to roughly $180 billion in assets, with compound annual growth above 70% since 2021. Crypto has taken a more visible role in that segment as issuers race to package Bitcoin and Ethereum in yield-bearing structures.

Goldman Chairman and CEO David Solomon, who has said he holds "very little, but some" Bitcoin, described the deal in terms of NEOS's income and outcome strategies more broadly.

NEOS co-founders Garrett Paolella and Troy Cates will join Goldman Sachs Asset Management as partners when the transaction closes.