Goldman Sachs has agreed to acquire NEOS Investments in a transaction worth up to $2.25 billion, adding another set of Bitcoin-related products to the Wall Street firm's portfolio, the bank announced on Wednesday.

JUST IN: Goldman Sachs acquires NEOS, including $1 billion in their Bitcoin High Income ETFs pic.twitter.com/hYmCBEDV20 — Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) August 12, 2026

The acquisition will be structured in cash and equity, contingent on performance and service milestones. It will bring three notable crypto-income products — the Neos Bitcoin High Income ETF (BTCI), the Boosted Bitcoin High Income ETF (XBCI), and the Ethereum High Income ETF (NEHI) — under Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon described NEOS's approach as "highly complementary" to the firm's existing buffer, managed-outcome, and income-generation capabilities.

NEOS co-founders Garrett Paolella and Troy Cates, who are set to join Goldman Sachs Asset Management as partners following the deal, characterized the transaction as a pairing of NEOS's "entrepreneurial spirit" with the scale and reach of Goldman Sachs.

NEOS currently manages approximately $30 billion across 19 ETFs that employ options-based strategies to generate monthly income for investors. When combined with Goldman Sachs Asset Management's existing $40 billion in income-oriented, options-based ETFs, the deal will expand Goldman's active ETF business to roughly $80 billion. According to Morningstar, that figure would make Goldman Sachs the eighth-largest active ETF manager, situated within a broader $130 billion ETF platform.

The acquisition builds on Goldman's earlier purchase of Innovator Capital Management, forming a three-way combination centered on derivative-income and buffer/outcome strategies. The strategy mirrors a broader wave of consolidation among asset managers seeking to bulk up their ETF capabilities, as firms from BlackRock to Franklin Templeton have moved aggressively to add crypto-linked and options-income products to their shelves following the SEC's approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs.

Importantly, the Bitcoin ETFs involved in the deal do not hold cryptocurrency directly. According to NEOS's disclosures, these funds use derivatives to generate income from crypto-linked exposure rather than owning the underlying coins. As a result, the high headline yields associated with these products come primarily from selling options premiums and do not necessarily reflect the spot price performance of Bitcoin itself.

The transaction effectively gives Goldman Sachs an immediate foothold in the crypto-income ETF space — a segment the bank had not previously developed organically. Goldman's digital-asset strategy has evolved incrementally: the firm has previously offered Bitcoin futures trading for institutional clients and participated in blockchain-based settlement pilots, while its leadership has at times struck a cautious public tone on cryptocurrency. The NEOS deal represents one of its most significant steps yet toward embedding crypto-linked products within its core asset management business.

The move comes as institutional appetite for digital-asset-adjacent, income-generating products continues to expand in tandem with the broader boom in derivative-income investing. Covered-call and options-based ETFs have drawn record inflows in recent years as investors seek yield in elevated-rate environments.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.

This article first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and was written by Mathew Di Salvo.