This week, online claims that quantitative trading firm Jane Street executed a daily “10 a.m. Bitcoin dump” resurfaced after Terraform Labs’ court-appointed administrator sued the firm, alleging insider trading tied to Terra’s May 2022 collapse. Market analysts and on-chain data, however, say the pattern does not support a consistent, company-driven selloff and that no single firm can easily force a prolonged Bitcoin bear market.
The Jane Street allegations followed the administrator’s lawsuit and were amplified by social posts suggesting the firm used holdings in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) to mask net short positions via hedges not visible in public filings. Critics argue Jane Street could sell spot Bitcoin programmatically at the U.S. market open to push prices lower and buy IBIT at a discount. Observers point to Jane Street’s 13-F filing showing large IBIT and other crypto-related holdings, including positions in mining companies Bitfarms, Cipher Mining and Hut 8.
Analysts caution the described activity — buying spot exposure while selling futures or using delta-neutral hedges — is common across market-making and delta-neutral strategies and is not unique to one firm. CryptoQuant’s head of research noted such strategies aim to capture spreads and are not necessarily directional bets. Available trade and flow data do not show a reliable, repeatable pattern consistent with a daily, company-driven dump.
Meanwhile, demand for U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs rebounded after five consecutive weeks of net outflows. According to Farside Investors data, the funds recorded over $1 billion of inflows across three consecutive days this week, with roughly $254 million in cumulative inflows on Thursday. The renewed appetite for spot ETFs underscores continued institutional and retail interest in crypto exposure via regulated products.
In Ether markets, several notable developments highlighted pressure on corporate ETH treasuries and broader market dynamics. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin reduced his combined tracked Ether balance by about 17,000 ETH over a month after earmarking $45 million for privacy projects. Arkham-tracked wallets showed a decline from roughly 241,000 ETH in early February to about 224,000 ETH. On-chain data indicate many sales were routed through DEX aggregator CoW Protocol using multiple smaller swaps — a typical method to limit market impact.
Corporate Ether holdings also suffered as ETH’s price slid. Bitmine Immersion Technologies, a leading corporate ETH holder, faces large unrealized losses with some trackers estimating paper losses near $8.8 billion after ETH fell about 60% over the past six months and below Bitmine’s average acquisition price (~$3,843 per token). Despite the downturn and mounting unrealized losses, Bitmine continued to buy ETH, acquiring 45,749 ETH at an average cost near $1,992 per token in a recent purchase. Major institutional investors, including Morgan Stanley, Ark Invest and BlackRock, have increased exposure to Bitmine during late 2025 even as the company’s stock slid roughly 59% over six months.
In decentralized finance, Aave reached a milestone of over $1 trillion in cumulative lending volume, a first for DeFi lending protocols. Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov framed the achievement as progress toward making Aave a primary liquidity network for builders, banks and fintechs. Aave’s institutional offering, Aave Horizon, launched to enable traditional finance firms to borrow stablecoins against real-world assets; early participants included VanEck, WisdomTree and Securitize. Aave secures over $27.2 billion in total value locked (TVL) and generated about $83.3 million in fees over the past 30 days, substantially more than its nearest competitors.
Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov argued DeFi must move beyond inflationary token emissions and build protocols that generate real revenue. He suggested yields should come from revenues rather than token inflation, noting that the speculative premium that drove DeFi’s earlier TVL growth has faded and users now better assess risks. DeFi TVL has fallen about 38% over six months, from $158 billion in August 2025 to roughly $98 billion more recently, highlighting the sector’s re-evaluation.
Market overview: Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed most of the top 100 cryptocurrencies ended the week in the green. Pippin (PIPPIN) led weekly gains among the top 100, rising about 55%, followed by Decred (DCR) with over a 44% increase. Total value locked in DeFi remains a key metric to watch amid shifting liquidity and institutional participation.
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