Goldman Sachs has filed a prospectus for a new fund called the Goldman Sachs Bitcoin Premium Income ETF, seeking to give investors bitcoin exposure without directly holding the cryptocurrency.
How the fund works
Rather than holding bitcoin directly like spot Bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock and Fidelity, Goldman’s proposed fund would invest in exchange-traded products that hold bitcoin, along with options tied to those products and indices tracking them.
The fund would also seek to generate income by selling call Bitcoin ETP options.
According to the filing:
“As the seller of these options, the fund receives a premium from the buyer of the options. The Fund expects that, under normal circumstances, the overwrite level will be between 40% and 100% of the value of the bitcoin exposure in the fund’s portfolio.”
This income strategy comes with a trade-off — the fund’s upside is capped, since losses on short call positions will limit gains if bitcoin prices rise sharply.
Wall Street reaction
Bloomberg Senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas expressed surprise at the move, writing on X:
“Can’t say I saw this coming. I kinda just thought JPM and GS would sit crypto out in favor of competing in other categories.”
One observer suggested the strategy likely centers on selling covered call options on BlackRock’s IBIT, the market-leading spot Bitcoin ETF.
Goldman’s shifting bitcoin stance
The filing comes after Goldman cut its spot bitcoin and ether ETF holdings by 39.4% in Q4 of last year.
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley’s recently launched spot bitcoin ETF, MSBT, generated roughly $34 million in trading volume on its first day, signaling continued Wall Street appetite for bitcoin investment vehicles.
