Jane Street Group deletes entire X timeline as allegations snowball

Jane Street Capital has deleted every post from its X account within days of being sued over the $40 billion Terra collapse. The firm now faces allegations of insider trading in crypto markets. The profit margin is too big to overlook; it generated $20.5 billion in net trading revenue last year and handles roughly 10% of all U.S. equity trades.

This is not the first time the quantitative trading firm and market maker has been sued for exploiting privileged access for profits. Other than Terra’s collapse, it’s under fire for SEBI’s 2025 India index options case for Bank Nifty manipulation.

Jane Street Capital timeline of events and initial allegations

According to the federal lawsuit filed on February 23 in the Southern District of New York, Jane Street Group avoided losses of over $200 million.

The complaint is heavily redacted. Profit figures, communications, as well as Jane Street’s trading strategy are not disclosed. There are 13 counts in the complaint for insider trading, securities fraud, violation of the Commodity Exchange Act, unjust enrichment, and breach of confidence.

However, Jane Street has called the suit “desperate” and a “transparent attempt to extract money.” Desperate as they claim the lawsuit to be, they have cleaned out their timeline of posts on X (formerly Twitter).

There is also a 105-page enforcement order published by India’s Securities and Exchange Board last July. India accused Jane Street of manipulating the BANKNIFTY and NIFTY 50 indices over 18 days of the derivative expiry period, ranging from January 2023 to March 2025. SEBI estimated total profits at 36,502 crore rupees, equivalent to about $4.3 billion.

According to some analysts,  Jane Street was actively pursuing a distinct trading plan. The entity was amassing a significant position in Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR), a company whose shares act as a leveraged Bitcoin proxy.

Now, the firm’s deletion of X posts appears to be a public relations tactic, while the actual market strategy is found on-chain.

Both cases are in early stages. Snyder filed the Terraform suit days ago. The SEBI appeal sits in adjournment. Jane Street denies all claims in both jurisdictions.

Crypto market sentiment shifts

As reported by Cryptopolitan, crypto has added more than $170 billion in market value since the firm was sued. Total market cap rose about 8% to nearly $2.5 trillion, as Bitcoin briefly traded above $70,000. Ethereum gained more than 13%. Solana surged over 15%.

Market manipulation allegations pointed at the 10 AM Eastern window. On Wednesday, traders said the usual heavy selling around that hour did not show up after news of the lawsuit.

Eric Balchunas has different thoughts on the matter. He asserts, “The bogeyman is gone.. That’s the vibe rn on CT and in the price action today. I get it, too, that the big daily dump seemed to kill every rally and everyone’s spirit. Is eliminating it enough for a sustained rebound? I guess we’ll find out.”

For almost two months, Bitcoin and the overall crypto market have been stuck in a downtrend. This has been due to repeated sell-offs around the US market open, which have led to massive liquidations.

This seems to have broken almost immediately after the details of a lawsuit related to the Terra-Luna market collapse began circulating on February 23. The market seemed to take a sigh of relief, with prices surging due to real buying interest from both retail and institutional investors.