Market-making giant Jane Street is once again attracting a lot of attention in cryptocurrency markets, with experts saying the company’s “next target” could now be Ethereum (ETH).
The speculation comes after reports that Jane Street made several major adjustments to its positions during the week, following months of scrutiny over alleged trade manipulation involving Bitcoin (BTC).
From Bitcoin’s withdrawal to Ethereum’s expansion
Jane Street, one of Wall Street’s most busy proprietary trading firms, apparently reduced the number of Bitcoin-related wallets in the first quarter (Q1) of the year, while significantly increasing its exposure to Ethereum-related assets.
Jane Street’s position in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is down 71% quarter-over-quarter to approximately 5.9 million shares for a reported value of nearly $225 million.
The company also reduced its stake in Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), which saw its share value drop by about 60% to about 2 million shares, worth nearly $115 million at the end of the quarter.
The reduction also covered Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy). Jane Street Strategic holdings decreased from approx. 968 thousand shares in the fourth quarter of 2025 to approx. 210 thousand shares at the end of the first quarter. The reported value dropped from nearly $146 million to about $27 million.
But while the company was limiting its exposure to Bitcoin, it was also building its footprint in Ethereum. Jane Street increased its holdings in Ethereum ETFs, and positions in BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust nearly doubled during the quarter.
The company also made a significant contribution to Fidelity’s Ethereum Fund. Combined additions in both cases ETH Products was estimated at approximately $82 million.
Smaller derivatives, bigger impact?
Analysts see the move as a potential continuation of the same pattern that some observers associate with Jane Street’s earlier Bitcoin controversies.
Analysts at Bull Theory suggested that the company behind the “10am daily Bitcoin airdrop,” the same company that was reportedly sued for insider trading in the $40 billion collapse of LUNA, and the same company with $567 million frozen by Indian regulators, may now be targeting Ethereum.
Their main argument is that ETH may be easier to transport than BTC, primarily due to the structure and scale of the market. Bull Theory indicated that Bitcoin futures open interest is around $60 billion, while Ethereum’s is just over half at around $34 billion.
The thesis is that A smaller derivatives market can enable you to influence the price with less capital expenditure. They also highlighted the relative size of the market, noting that ETH’s market capitalization is $273 billion compared to BTC’s $1.6 trillion. According to their logic, the same amount of capital would result in a 6x greater impact on the ETH price.
Analysts also argued that the Ethereum ETF market is still relatively early. They claimed that Bitcoin ETFs hold approximately 6.67% of the total BTC supply in circulation, while Ethereum ETF penetration is lower, meaning there may not yet be an institutional “demand floor” to absorb coordinated selling.
Their conclusion was telling: they believe that the rotation towards Ethereum is not happening primarily because Jane Street is forecasting growth fundamentals for ETH, but because Ethereum is “easier to move around.”
At the time of writing, ETH is trading around $2,292, almost unchanged from Wednesday’s price. Meanwhile, other assets such as Bitcoin and XRP have seen gains of around 2% and 4%, respectively, over the same period.
Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
