Notice Bitcoin selling off at market open? Jane Street is taking the blame, but the data points elsewhere
#Analysis Enterprise ETF Featured Market TradFi Trading bitcoin Blackrock Jane Street
Bitcoin’s move toward $70,000 has brought back a question we often ask: have Wall Street firms within the spot ETF system taken too much control over price discovery? People are pointing at Jane Street, a large quantitative trading firm that plays a major role as an ETF intermediary.
Bitcoin’s rebound toward $70,000 in the last 24 hours has revived a familiar debate in crypto markets: whether Wall Street firms operating within the spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) ecosystem have gained too much influence over price discovery. The latest target is Jane Street, the quantitative trading firm that is both a major ETF intermediary and the subject of a fresh lawsuit tied to the 2022 collapse of Terraform Labs. Traders on social media linked Bitcoin’s recent rally to claims that a pattern of sharp selling at the US market open had faded after the lawsuit news. This theory spread because it combines two common fears: distrust of large trading firms and concern over how much of Bitcoin’s market runs through traditional finance. I think the evidence for a coordinated suppression program is thin. What the episode shows more clearly is that the structure of spot Bitcoin ETFs makes it hard for investors to separate genuine spot demand from market-making, hedging, and arbitrage. In that sense, the Jane Street issue goes beyond one firm. It is about how Bitcoin’s new institutional infrastructure shapes price discovery, and whether markets are becoming more efficient or just more opaque.
