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  • Goldman pays up to $2.25B for an income-ETF shop,

  • Fidelity turns staking into a dividend,

  • Washington’s agencies lap Congress,

  • and stablecoins ride the digital pound’s test rails.

One theme runs through all of it: nobody bought exposure this week. Everybody bought income.

PS: This week, we’re testing a new format. Simpler, lighter, sharper. Tell us how you like it at the bottom of the newsletter.

Goldman Buys the Yield, Not the Coin

Goldman Sachs agreed to acquire NEOS Investments for up to $2.25B in cash and equity, its second ETF deal this year.

What’s happening: NEOS, founded in 2022, runs $30B across 19 options-based income ETFs. The one everyone’s watching is BTCI, its bitcoin high-income fund: $1B+ in assets, under 4% of the deal, and an advertised annualized distribution rate around 27%.

  • Bitcoin trades near $64K, about half its October high.

  • Ether is down about 37% since January. The 10-year pays 4.65%.

  • Derivative-income ETFs are already a $180B category, growing 70%+ a year since 2021, per Morningstar data cited by Goldman.

When the price stops paying, investors want the asset to.

Why it matters: Goldman filed its own bitcoin premium income ETF in April. It never launched. Four months later, it agreed to pay up to $2.25B for the firm that got there first.