Allegations that quant trading firm Jane Street carried out a daily “10 a.m. Bitcoin dump” resurfaced this week after Terraform Labs’ court-appointed administrator sued the firm, accusing it of insider trading tied to Terra’s May 2022 collapse. Social posts amplified the claim, suggesting Jane Street used holdings in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) to hide net short exposure by hedging in ways not obvious in public filings. Observers pointed to Jane Street’s 13-F disclosure showing sizable IBIT and other crypto-related positions, including stakes in miners such as Bitfarms, Cipher Mining and Hut 8.
Market analysts and on-chain researchers, however, say the evidence does not support a consistent, company-driven selloff. They note that strategies that pair spot buying with futures selling or other delta-neutral hedges are common among market makers and liquidity providers and are typically designed to capture spreads rather than bet directionally on Bitcoin’s price. Available trade and flow data do not reveal a reliable, repeatable pattern consistent with a daily corporate dumping program, and analysts caution that no single trading firm can easily engineer a sustained Bitcoin bear market on its own.
The Jane Street allegations circulated alongside claims that the firm could programmatically sell spot Bitcoin at the U.S. market open to push prices lower and then buy IBIT at a discount. Critics cited Jane Street’s reported holdings to support the theory. But exchanges’ and on-chain flow data examined by researchers did not show the clear, repeatable signals the narrative implies, and crypto-market specialists emphasize that similar trading mechanics are industry-standard rather than evidence of manipulation by one actor.
Meanwhile, U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products saw a reversal after five straight weeks of outflows. Farside Investors data showed the funds recorded more than $1 billion of inflows across three consecutive days this week, with roughly $254 million in cumulative inflows on Thursday alone. The renewed demand for spot ETFs highlights persistent institutional and retail appetite for regulated crypto exposure.
Ether market activity also drew attention. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin trimmed about 17,000 ETH from his tracked combined balance over the last month after allocating roughly $45 million toward privacy-focused initiatives. Arkham-tracked wallets collectively fell from about 241,000 ETH in early February to roughly 224,000 ETH, and on-chain evidence suggests many of the sales were executed through the DEX aggregator CoW Protocol in several smaller swaps — a common technique to limit market impact.
Corporate Ether treasuries felt the pressure as ETH’s price declined. Reporting showed that leading corporate ETH holder Bitmine Immersion Technologies incurred substantial unrealized losses after ETH dropped roughly 60% over six months and fell below the company’s average acquisition cost (reported near $3,843 per token). Some trackers estimated paper losses near $8.8 billion. Despite those losses, Bitmine reportedly continued to buy, adding 45,749 ETH at an average cost close to $1,992 per token in a recent purchase. The company attracted increased interest from institutional investors — including Morgan Stanley, Ark Invest and BlackRock — in late 2025 even as its stock had fallen about 59% over the prior six months.
In decentralized finance, Aave announced a milestone of more than $1 trillion in cumulative lending volume, the first time a DeFi lending protocol has reached that mark. Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov described the milestone as progress toward positioning Aave as a liquidity network for builders, banks and fintechs. Aave’s institutional product, Aave Horizon, launched to let traditional finance firms borrow stablecoins against real-world assets, with early participants named as VanEck, WisdomTree and Securitize. Aave currently secures over $27.2 billion in total value locked (TVL) and generated roughly $83.3 million in fees over the past 30 days, significantly outpacing nearby competitors.
Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov argued that DeFi must shift away from inflationary token emissions and toward protocol models that generate sustainable revenue. He said yields should derive from real revenue streams instead of token inflation, noting that the speculative premium which drove earlier TVL growth has faded and users now evaluate risks more critically. DeFi’s TVL has declined about 38% over six months, falling from roughly $158 billion in August 2025 to about $98 billion recently, underscoring the sector’s ongoing reevaluation.
Market overview: data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed most of the top 100 cryptocurrencies closed the week in positive territory. Pippin (PIPPIN) led gains among the top 100, rising about 55% for the week, followed by Decred (DCR) with a gain above 44%. Observers say TVL and shifting liquidity patterns remain key metrics to watch as institutional participation and on-chain activity evolve.
This report summarizes public filings, on-chain metrics and market data; readers are encouraged to independently verify details and consult original sources.