Jane Street's Three Sins: Insider Trading, Index Manipulation, and the Bitcoin 'Morning Massacre'
Jane Street, a highly profitable quantitative trading firm, faces serious allegations across multiple continents. In the U.S., Terraform Labs’ bankruptcy trustee has sued Jane Street, accusing it of insider trading related to the May 2022 collapse of Terra Luna. The suit claims Jane Street withdrew $85 million from a liquidity pool just minutes after Terraform secretly removed $150 million, allegedly using non-public information from a former intern. The action allegedly helped trigger a $40 billion crash.
Simultaneously, in India, the Securities and Exchange Board (SEBI) has accused Jane Street of manipulating the Bank Nifty index through a “pump-and-dump” scheme over 18 expiration dates, resulting in alleged illegal profits of ~$580 million. Jane Street has been barred from Indian markets and is appealing.
Additionally, Bitcoin traders had observed a pattern of sharp sell-offs at 10 AM ET—dubbed the "10 AM Crashes"—coinciding with U.S. market open, which many attributed to Jane Street’s trading activity. Notably, Jane Street is an authorized participant of BlackRock’s IBIT Bitcoin ETF, holding significant shares. After the Terra lawsuit was filed, the predictable sell-offs stopped, and Bitcoin saw a notable price rebound.
The broader implication is the risk of market manipulation by privileged intermediaries within ETF structures—a problem Bitcoin was designed to overcome. If Jane Street halts its alleged manipulative strategies due to legal pressure, a major selling pressure on Bitcoin may be removed.
marsbit02/26 03:56
