'Leap Frog'—Goldman's $2.25 Billion Bitcoin Shock Rattles BlackRock

"Everyone is filing this under Wall Street finally buying bitcoin. Goldman bought something else," the market account Crypto Channel 24 posted on X after Goldman Sachs agreed to buy NEOS Investments and its $1.1 billion bitcoin income ETF for up to $2.25 billion.

The bitcoin price sat near $63,000 as the deal landed, down half from October's $126,000 peak. "This is a huge statement for the bigger crypto movement," posted Sam Price, who runs the Crypto Lifer account on X.

Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas read the acquisition as a shortcut past a rival. "Goldman will get $BTCI in the Neos deal, which is a $1b bitcoin premium income ETF, yields 27% and captures most but not all of bitcoins run-ups," he posted on X. "Nowww I get why GS never launched the btc covered call product they filed months ago. Better to leap frog BlackRock's $BITA vs me too"

Goldman's own August 12 announcement, which puts NEOS at $30 billion in assets across 19 options-based income ETFs, never uses the word bitcoin. "As investor demand for active ETFs grows, NEOS' disciplined investment approach is highly complementary to our capabilities across buffer, managed outcome and income strategies," Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO David Solomon said in the statement. "Together, we will give investors a diverse toolkit for different market environments."