Jane Street Blamed for Bitcoin Selloffs, But Data Says Otherwise

Glassnode co-founders Jan Happel and Yann Allemann claimed that Jane Street's involvement in a Terraform Labs lawsuit coincided with the end of daily Bitcoin selloffs at 10am. The two ran the Negentropic X account, which posted that after the Jane Street lawsuit became public, the regular morning Bitcoin drops disappeared.

But on-chain analysts aren't buying it. Checkonchain analyst James Check said Jane Street did not suppress Bitcoin and that long-term holders selling spot into the market had done far more to explain the price action. CryptoQuant head of research Julio Moreno argued the theory ignored a collapse in Bitcoin spot demand since early October 2025.

The accusations stem from a lawsuit filed by Terraform Labs against Jane Street, alleging the quantitative trading firm withdrew ₱4.89 billion ($85 million) from a wallet within minutes of Terraform pulling ₱8.63 billion ($150 million) in TerraUSD liquidity from Curve's 3pool during the May 2022 collapse. Wintermute researcher Igor Igamberdiev noted the transactions do not prove that Jane Street necessarily had malicious intent.

Jane Street serves as an authorized participant for the iShares Bitcoin Trust and other ETFs, giving it a central role in the Bitcoin ETF ecosystem. The firm called Terraform's lawsuit a desperate attempt to shift blame for losses caused by Terraform's own conduct. Spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen ₱258.93 billion ($4.5 billion) in outflows into 2026, with institutional exposure dropping for five straight weeks. Wall Street firms now control 55% of Bitcoin trading through ETFs, shifting price discovery toward futures markets rather than spot. The marginal bid for Bitcoin now runs through the same institutional pipes channeling equities and bonds, a fundamental shift since spot Bitcoin ETF approval on January 10, 2024. Bitcoin remains on track for a fifth straight monthly loss as ETF outflows put ₱3,337,289 ($58,000) in sight.