Goldman Sachs has agreed to acquire NEOS Investment Management in a deal worth up to $2.25 billion, adding one of the fastest-growing options-income ETF shops to its asset management arm. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approval, with NEOS co-founders Troy Cates and Garrett Paolella set to join Goldman Sachs Asset Management along with the rest of the firm's team.
NEOS currently manages about $30 billion across 19 options-based income ETFs, a lineup that includes three funds with direct crypto exposure: the Bitcoin High Income ETF (BTCI), the Boosted Bitcoin High Income ETF (XBCI), and the Ethereum High Income ETF (NEHI). Each uses options-selling strategies layered on top of BTC or ETH price exposure to generate monthly income, a structure that has proven popular with investors seeking yield rather than pure directional exposure to crypto.
Goldman's second ETF deal this year
The NEOS purchase is not an isolated move. Goldman closed its acquisition of Innovator Capital Management in April, a roughly $2 billion transaction that brought Innovator's 171 defined-outcome ETFs and about $31 billion in assets under supervision into the Goldman fold. Together, the two deals push Goldman Sachs Asset Management's global ETF platform to approximately $130 billion in assets, positioning the firm as the eighth-largest active ETF manager.
The back-to-back acquisitions mark a deliberate build-out of Goldman's ETF business through outside deal-making rather than organic product launches alone, targeting categories — defined-outcome and options-income strategies — where demand has outpaced Goldman's own existing shelf.
A selective approach to crypto exposure
The NEOS deal adds crypto-linked income products to Goldman's shelf even as the bank has otherwise trimmed its direct exposure to token-tracking ETFs. Goldman reduced its crypto ETF holdings in the first quarter of 2026, exiting positions in XRP and Solana funds while keeping more than $700 million invested in Bitcoin ETFs. Read together, the moves suggest Goldman is narrowing its crypto ETF exposure toward Bitcoin and structured income products rather than broad altcoin-tracking funds.
Related: Crypto Derivatives Volume Falls 11.1% to $3.03 Trillion in July
How the market is reading the deal
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas described the acquisition as a “semi-shock,” pointing to NEOS's rapid growth since its 2022 launch and Goldman's now-established pattern of acquiring rather than building in the ETF space. The deal reinforces a broader trend of large asset managers absorbing specialist ETF issuers wholesale rather than competing head-on with new fund launches.
