Jane Street Draws Market-Manipulation Suspicions After Becoming Top Silver ETF Holder Before Price Plunge
Jane Street is a New York-based quantitative trading firm and market maker with a long-standing presence in ETFs, commodities and derivatives. Its emergence as the largest disclosed holder of BlackRock’s iShares Silver Trust (SLV), alongside its sizable share and options positions, has raised questions over whether it could influence silver prices. No regulator, however, has determined that the firm manipulated the market.
Jane Street increased its SLV holdings to about 20.7 million shares in the fourth quarter of 2025 from 41,193 shares, valuing the position at roughly $1.3 billion. The news emerged in late February 2026. Silver subsequently fell more than 30%, from a January high of about $121 an ounce to around $83 on March 3, wiping an estimated more than $1.4 trillion from its market value.
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The history behind this eventAnalysts Reject Claims That Jane Street Manipulated Bitcoin Prices
Jane Street is an authorized participant for BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, handling share creation and redemption while helping keep its price aligned with net asset value. Terraform Labs administrator Todd Snyder filed a lawsuit on February 23, 2026, alleging that the firm engaged in insider trading before TerraUSD collapsed in May 2022, prompting concerns about potential ETF manipulation.
On February 26, 2026, analysts rejected claims of routine selling at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. Alex Krüger calculated that IBIT had posted a cumulative return of 0.9% between 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. since January 1, although its return during the first 15 minutes was negative 1%. Jane Street reported holding about $790 million of IBIT as of the fourth quarter of 2025, but that does not represent its actual net position or prove that it manipulated the market.
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