#高盛申请比特币收益型ETF Not a spot ETF, what is Goldman Sachs selling?
Let's start with a detail overlooked by the market: Goldman Sachs this time is not applying for a spot Bitcoin ETF. It is applying for a "premium yield" ETF, with the core strategy being covered call (covered call options).
Simply put, the fund holds shares of a spot Bitcoin ETF (mainly BlackRock's IBIT), while selling call options, collecting option premiums, and periodically distributing dividends to investors. The coverage ratio for selling options fluctuates between 40% and 100%.
What does this mean? If Bitcoin surges dramatically, you can only profit partially; if Bitcoin remains flat or rises slightly, you earn more than just holding Bitcoin because of the additional income from option premiums.
Goldman Sachs's choice of this product form precisely exposes its client profile: not retail investors hoping to tenfold their Bitcoin, but institutional allocators managing hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. These funds need a reason to enter Bitcoin, and that reason cannot be "faith," but "yield."
Goldman Sachs's ETF essentially says: Bitcoin's volatility itself is an asset that can be monetized. You don't need to bet on the direction; you just need to acknowledge that this market is active enough for option sellers to make money.
This idea is very similar to BlackRock's upcoming BITA. BITA also uses a covered call strategy, turning Bitcoin's volatility into monthly dividends. The difference is that BlackRock has IBIT, a massive $55 billion core holding providing liquidity support, while Goldman Sachs chooses not to hold Bitcoin directly, but to indirectly hold spot ETF shares through a Cayman Islands subsidiary to avoid regulatory constraints.
These two Wall Street giants, almost simultaneously focusing on the same product track, seem to indicate one thing: the war for Bitcoin spot ETFs is over, and the next battle is "who can package Bitcoin into a product that traditional asset management clients can understand."
From buying others' products to creating their own: Goldman Sachs's nine-year transformation
Looking at the timeline, Goldman Sachs's attitude change toward cryptocurrencies is one of Wall Street's most dramatic turnarounds.
In 2021, Goldman Sachs rebooted its cryptocurrency trading desk, beginning to offer Bitcoin futures and options trading to clients. At that time, the entire industry was still using phrases like "we focus on blockchain technology, not Bitcoin" to express a vague interest—something they wanted to explore but dared not openly say. By late 2024 to early 2025, Goldman Sachs's 13F filings began revealing their true stance.
By the fourth quarter of 2024, Goldman Sachs held $1.57 billion worth of Bitcoin ETF shares, with $1.27 billion in BlackRock's IBIT, and $288 million in Fidelity's FBTC, a 121% increase from the previous quarter.
By the 13F disclosure in Q4 2025, Goldman Sachs indirectly held about 13,741 Bitcoin through various spot Bitcoin ETFs, with a market value of approximately $1.71 billion. Even more astonishing, it also held about $1 billion in Ethereum ETFs, $153M in XRP ETFs, and $108M in Solana ETFs. CEO David Solomon was invited to speak at the World Liberty Financial Forum. From buying others' products to creating their own and selling to others, Goldman Sachs made this shift in less than two years.
