#JaneStreet10AMSellOff

The latest whispers echoing through the corridors of the crypto world have moved beyond mere rumors, manifesting as official court transcripts and aggressive red candles on our screens. The discussions surrounding #JaneStreet10AMSellOff are not just another conspiracy theory; they offer a profound narrative into the dark alleys of market making and the cold wars of algorithmic trading.
​Here is my professional analysis untangling this complex knot:
​The 10:00 AM Barrier: Algorithms or Manipulation?
​For months, we felt an unexplained selling pressure on Bitcoin every single day at exactly 10:00 AM (EST), right after the US market open. Investors began treating it like a "time bomb." However, as of February 2026, the pieces of the puzzle have finally fallen into place. A massive lawsuit filed against Jane Street by the team managing the liquidation of Terraform Labs has deciphered the institutional strategy behind this "coincidence."
​The allegations are staggering: It is claimed that Jane Street "front-runned" the market using insider information—not just today, but also during the $40 billion Terra/Luna collapse in 2022.
​Lawsuit Filed, "Dump" Ceased
​The detail that caught the attention of market observers most was this: the moment the lawsuit became official and Jane Street’s ETF arbitrage mechanisms were placed under a magnifying glass, the infamous "10:00 AM Sell-Off" abruptly stopped. The sudden rally on February 25, 2026, which saw Bitcoin surge from $63,000 toward $70,000, was essentially a "breaking of the chains" movement.
​"When the market's most mysterious giant was pulled into court, the sell algorithm that operated periodically every morning seemed to be unplugged. This situation once again proves how retail investor liquidity is being ground down within a massive gear system."
​The ETF Mechanism and the Scapegoat
​As one of the largest authorized participants of BlackRock’s IBIT fund, Jane Street is alleged to have exerted pressure on the market under the guise of "hedging" its massive Bitcoin ETF positions—totaling approximately $790 million. While this is labeled as "delta-neutral" position management in the professional trading world, for the retail investor, it amounted to a blatant liquidation operation.
​What Happens Next?
​This incident highlights how vulnerable cryptocurrencies remain to "Old Wall Street games" even as they become more institutionalized. The SEBI sanctions in India against Jane Street, coupled with this insider trading case in the US, will likely push regulatory pressure on market makers to an all-time high.
​For Bitcoin, the $70,000 level is no longer just a technical resistance; it is a confirmation of whether we have truly escaped this institutional suppression. If the 10:00 AM sell-offs do not resume, we can conclude that the market has entered a period of much fairer price discovery.