#深度创作营 New York Quantitative Giant Jane Street Involved in "Bitcoin Manipulation" Scandal: Truth or Scapegoat?

Recently, the top New York-based quantitative firm Jane Street Group LLC has been trending on social media over "Bitcoin price manipulation" allegations. The company has been involved in multiple incidents that have put it under the spotlight, making it a focal point of accusations within the crypto community!

Overview
Jane Street Group LLC (abbreviated as Jane Street) is a top-tier quantitative trading firm headquartered in New York, founded around 2000. It is known for high-frequency trading, market making, and options/derivatives trading. In 2025, its net trading revenue hit a record-breaking over $20 billion, making it one of Wall Street’s most profitable institutions (about 3,000 employees, no traditional CEO, operates like a "governance-free commune").
It was founded by four co-founders: Tim Reynolds, Rob Granieri, Marc Gerstein, and Michael Jenkins. The first three were traders at Susquehanna International Group (SIG, a top trading firm in Philadelphia), while Marc Gerstein has a background in software development at IBM. The company has very high recruitment standards, often attracting talent from top universities like Harvard and MIT. Its influence in the cryptocurrency space is significant:
- It is one of the authorized participants in mainstream Bitcoin spot ETFs like BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), responsible for creating/redeeming ETF shares and providing liquidity.
- In 2024, its assets under management reached $140.2 billion, surpassing Bridgewater Associates to become one of the world’s largest hedge funds.
- In the first half of 2024, net trading revenue was $8.4 billion, with annual revenue exceeding $20 billion. The firm handles about 10% of North American stock trading and is active in the crypto derivatives market (over $20 billion in trading volume in 2022).

Current Controversies and Allegations (Hot Topic February 2026)
Event 1:
Terraform Labs (Terra/Luna) Bankruptcy Trustee Lawsuit (February 23, 2026, Southern District of New York Federal Court): Accuses Jane Street and its co-founder Robert Granieri, employee Bryce Pratt (former Terraform intern), and Michael Huang of using insider information to trade ahead of the Terra collapse in May 2022.
Details: Terraform withdrew $150 million UST from Curve3pool without announcement; within 10 minutes, a Jane Street-related wallet withdrew $85 million UST (the largest swap in platform history). It is alleged that they obtained non-public liquidity migration information through former employees, closed positions early to avoid losses exceeding $200 million, and accelerated the UST de-pegging and Luna collapse (total losses of $40 billion).
The company responded by saying this was "a desperate attempt to recover losses!" and strongly defended itself. The case is currently in discovery phase, with no final judgment yet.

Event 2: "10AM Bitcoin Dump" Rumor:
Community members accuse Jane Street of using algorithms to heavily sell Bitcoin every day around the US stock market open (about 10AM ET), triggering long positions to be liquidated, pushing prices down, and facilitating low-cost rebuys or profits from derivatives.
Supporting data: Over the past few months, Bitcoin’s average 15-minute return around 10AM has been -1.82%. Some days saw $130 million in liquidations, totaling over $3.9 billion in long position liquidations. After overlapping with Terraform lawsuit involvement, the rumor escalated:
Some say an internal memo from Jane Street instructed to stop "manipulative Bitcoin trading activities," and the algorithms have been shut down. Subsequently, Bitcoin rebounded (rising over 3% on February 25-26, breaking $68,000). The company explained that as an ETF market maker, Jane Street needs to balance inventories and may sell at open to hedge risks, not to manipulate prices intentionally.

Event 3: India SEBI Accusation (July 2025):
SEBI accused Jane Street of manipulating the Bank Nifty and Nifty 50 indices at 18 derivative expiry dates from 2023 to 2025, pushing prices higher to profit about $4.3 billion. Some funds were frozen ($560 million in custody), and the company was temporarily barred from the Indian market. Since Jane Street is a private company and not publicly listed, its holdings data can only be sourced from public reports:
- IBIT holdings: In Q4 2025, increased by 7.1 million shares (worth $276 million), totaling 20.31 million shares (about $790 million), making it one of IBIT’s top shareholders. It also holds $400 million worth of FBTC and $120 million in MicroStrategy.
An important data point: IBIT’s holdings are only $800 million, while BlackRock’s total assets are $519 billion, accounting for just 1.5%. Additionally, BlackRock’s IBIT includes other market makers like Virtu Americas, JPMorgan Securities, and Macquarie Capital—these firms are much larger than Jane Street! BlackRock added five more firms in 2024, totaling nine companies working for it! Another key figure is its asset management scale of $140 billion, mainly in US stocks and market making in crypto, with an estimated exposure of around $10 billion. Although Bitcoin is in a bear market, daily spot trading volume still reaches $20 billion, and during bull markets, it can hit over $100 billion. So, Jane Street trying to "manipulate the market long-term" with a few hundred million or a few billion is quite difficult, considering the market is influenced by many players and macroeconomic factors! Currently, Bitcoin’s market cap is about $1.5 trillion; its small size means it might only influence prices for minutes or hours. It’s very unlikely that one firm alone can cause a long-term decline over several months.

Of course, in a long-term declining market, many people look for reasons and scapegoats. Bitcoin’s price movements are more driven by macro factors (Federal Reserve policies, ETF inflows), on-chain data, and sentiment rather than a single company. If you are a long-term investor bullish on BTC, don’t be swayed by single rumors. Focus on on-chain indicators, ETF net inflows, and macro signals—that’s the real key.