Crypto: Bitcoin Manipulation Claims Face Pushback As Etfs Snap 5-week...

Analysts dispute claims of a daily Jane Street Bitcoin dump as spot Bitcoin ETFs post three days of inflows and DeFi debates shift to real revenue.

This week, rumors of a “10 a.m. Bitcoin dump” blamed on quantitative trading company Jane Street gained traction online after it was sued by Terraform Labs’ court-appointed administrator, but market watchers said the data does not support a consistent, company-driven selloff.

The accusations mounted a day after Jane Street was sued by Terraform Labs’ administrator amid allegations of insider trading that worsened the collapse of Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin ecosystem in May 2022.

Elsewhere in the market, demand for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds returned after five consecutive weeks of net negative outflows. US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs took in over $1 billion in three consecutive days this week, with $254 million in cumulative inflows on Thursday, according to Farside Investors data.

Corporate Ether treasuries also came under pressure. The leader in corporate Ether (ETH), Bitmine Immersion Technologies, was seen facing an $8.8 billion paper loss on its holdings amid the ongoing market downturn.

Cryptocurrency investors accused quantitative trading company Jane Street of pressuring Bitcoin’s price with a daily, programmatic sell-off at the US market open, but market analysts and data suggest the pattern is not consistent, and no single company can force Bitcoin into a prolonged bear market.

The claims surged online a day after Terraform Labs’ court-appointed administrator sued Jane Street, alleging insider trading tied to transactions that worsened the collapse of Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin ecosystem in May 2022.

Several market watchers, including crypto influencer Justin Bechler, have argued that Jane Street’s holding of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust exchange-traded fund (ETF), known as IBIT, could mask a net short Bitcoin position through hedges that do not appear in public filings. Bechler argued that Jane Street conducted coordinated algorithmic selling of Bitcoin at 10 a.m. EST daily, manipulating the Bitcoin (BTC) price to buy the ETF at a discount.

”When Jane Street reports holding $790 million in IBIT shares, the filing tells you nothing about whether those shares are hedged by puts, offset by short futures, or wrapped in a collar that makes the firm's net Bitcoin exposure zero or even negative,” wrote Bechler, adding that the ”actual position could be a massive short that looks lik

Source: CoinTelegraph