Cryptocurrencies continue to make headlines as bitcoin and ether notch new record highs mid-August. Investors looking for opportunities in bitcoin don’t want to miss the NEOS Bitcoin High Income ETF (BTCI ), which recently crossed the $500 million in AUM threshold.
A favorable U.S. regulatory environment and growing corporate adoption lay the foundation for increased bitcoin demand looking ahead. This could prove beneficial for prices as the investor pool becomes further diversified and more entrenched on the institutional side.
As bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are a more nascent asset class, they inherently carry a high volatility profile. NEOS Investments seeks to put this trait to work, translating elevated volatility into income through an options-writing strategy.
BTCI Converts Bitcoin Volatility to Income
For investors with the risk appetite for bitcoin investing, BTCI is worth consideration. The fund offers a diversified approach to bitcoin through its focus on capturing income from volatility. Launched in October 2024, BTCI crossed $500 million in AUM the week of August 4, 2025.
BTCI touts a 27.92% distribution rate, as of July 31, 2025. A forward-looking metric, distribution rate annualizes the most recent distribution and then divides it by NAV at time of distribution. It’s what investors would earn should distributions remain the same over the next year.
The fund invests in bitcoin futures ETFs and options contracts that use BTC futures ETFs for their reference asset. This creates synthetic exposure to BTC through BTC futures. At the same time, BTCI writes covered call options on BTC futures ETFs to generate high monthly income. The strategy uses a rules-based, systematic, proprietary model to determine its options positions.
Covered call options entail buying an asset while also writing a call on the underlying asset. This generates a premium, but also caps the upside potential. Options strategies like BTCI often benefit from volatility, earning higher premiums on call writing (and thereby income) when volatility spikes. Given bitcoin’s enhanced volatility, it could prove an attractive source of additional income for BTC investors.
The fund’s managers may also engage in tax-loss harvesting to capture losses in order to offset gains made.
BTCI has an expense ratio of 0.98%.
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