With the help of the U.S. invasion of Venezuela, which led to the arrest of Nicolas Maduro, bitcoin rallied over the weekend. Some of that momentum carried over to Monday’s trading session.
As of midday Monday, the largest digital currency was trading above $94,000. That stoked speculation that a return to $100,000 is inevitable over the near-term. That remains to be seen, but renewed enthusiasm for bitcoin could put a spotlight on ETFs such as the NEOS Bitcoin High Income ETF (BTCI ).
As its name implies, BTCI is an income-generating play on the king of cryptocurrencies. The actively managed fund is a covered call ETF and it delivers big income on bitcoin. That asset, like gold, doesn’t pay dividends or interest when directly held. The NEOS ETF sported a staggering distribution rate of 27.25% as of December 31, 2025.
BTCI Matters Today
It’s not just an impressive income stream that makes the ETF alluring. The fund could prove relevant against the backdrop of regime change in Venezuela. Here’s why.
The prevailing wisdom — probably accurate to some extent — is that the U.S. wants access to Venezuela’s trillions of dollars of oil reserves. However, some talk is emerging about the country’s purported bitcoin holdings. Described as a “shadow reserve,” unconfirmed rumors suggest that the South American country may own as much as 600,000 bitcoin. That’s worth about $60 billion, based on current prices.
“If these projections are even directionally accurate, the US government’s capture of Maduro is not just a diplomatic victory but a potential seizure of nearly 3% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply,” reported Crypto Slate.
Assuming that Venezuela holds $60 billion worth of bitcoin, if the U.S. seizes that stockpile, BTCI could benefit. If the U.S. uses it to bolster the national bitcoin reserve rather than selling it on the open market, that equates to removal of supply from the market.
Remember that as a covered call ETF, BTCI won’t capture all of bitcoin’s upside, but it can capture some. With NEOS’s track record of capturing impressive percentages of upside delivered by the underlying assets across its options-based income ETF suite, BTCI could be ideal for income investors seeking crypto exposure at a time when Venezuela may be surprisingly prominent in determining the digital currency’s near-term price action.
“According to the Whale Hunt report, this accumulation began in earnest around 2018, and the primary mechanism for the acquisition involved the aggressive liquidation of gold reserves from the Orinoco Mining Arc,” added Crypto Slate. “The reports continued that the regime swapped approximately $2 billion in physical gold for Bitcoin at average prices near $5,000. That specific tranche alone, if held intact, would now be worth billions.”
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