Jane Street cuts IBIT 71% FBTC 60%

Jane Street disclosed in a Form 13F filed on May 12 that it reduced its reported holdings in two of the largest U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds during the first quarter. The filing showed lower positions in BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust, known as IBIT, and Fidelity's Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund, known as FBTC, as of March 31. The move was reported by several crypto market outlets that parsed the filing and compared it with Jane Street's previous quarter positions. The same filing showed the trading firm added to some Ether-linked funds, according to those reports. ### What exactly did Jane Street cut? Jane Street's reported IBIT position fell about 71% quarter over quarter to roughly 5.87 million shares, according to filing-based summaries published after the 13F appeared on Tuesday. Its FBTC stake fell about 60% to about 1.95 million shares, those reports said. Several outlets also said the filing showed a reduction in Grayscale's Bitcoin-linked exposure and in other crypto-related positions. (13f.info) The March 31 snapshot matters because Form 13F reports show long U.S. equity and certain ETF holdings at quarter-end, not a firm's full book or its current positions. The SEC says Form 13F data sets are extracted from managers' quarterly submissions, and third-party filing trackers note the reports can lag current positioning by weeks. ### Why are traders focused on a market maker's ETF inventory? (cointelegraph.com) Jane Street is one of Wall Street's biggest trading firms, and its ETF positions draw attention because market makers often hold inventory as part of hedging and liquidity provision. That means a lower reported stake does not by itself establish a directional bearish call on Bitcoin. Several reports on the filing framed the changes as a portfolio or inventory shift rather than proof of a long-term market view. (sec.gov) AMBCrypto cited analyst Parker White as saying the reduction could be constructive for Bitcoin if it meant a large intermediary was less dominant in ETF-related positioning. NewsBTC separately reported similar market commentary, though that interpretation was presented as analyst opinion rather than a statement from Jane Street. Jane Street did not publicly explain the specific rationale for the changes in the sources reviewed. (financefeeds.com) ### How did this line up with ETF flows that week? U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted heavy withdrawals on May 13, with total net outflows of about $635 million, according to market data cited by multiple outlets using SoSoValue figures. BlackRock's IBIT led those withdrawals with about $285 million in outflows, while Fidelity's FBTC lost about $133 million and ARK 21Shares' ARKB lost about $177 million, the reports said. Those figures put Jane Street's filing in front of a market already watching renewed volatility in ETF demand. (ambcrypto.com) The May 13 outflow was described by several outlets as the largest daily withdrawal since late January. CoinDesk reported about $1.26 billion had been pulled from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs over five trading days, based on SoSoValue data. ### Did Jane Street move money into Ethereum instead? (cointelegraph.com) Several reports said Jane Street increased positions in Ether ETFs in the same first-quarter filing. Cointelegraph reported the firm added to BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust and Fidelity's Ethereum fund, while other summaries described the shift as a rotation away from some Bitcoin-linked exposure and toward Ether-linked products. (coindesk.com) Those reports did not establish that Jane Street had made a simple one-way macro bet from Bitcoin to Ether. Form 13F filings do not show shorts, swaps, futures or many other hedges that a market-making firm may use alongside long ETF holdings. The SEC's description of the dataset and filing trackers' notes on 13F scope both underscore that limitation. (cointelegraph.com) ### What should readers watch next? The next hard data points are daily ETF flow reports and the next round of Form 13F filings covering positions as of June 30. Jane Street's current filing was submitted on May 12, and second-quarter 13F reports are typically due within 45 days after quarter-end under SEC reporting rules. In the meantime, BlackRock's IBIT, Fidelity's FBTC and other U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs will continue to publish the fund-level activity that traders use to track demand day by day. (sec.gov) (13f.info)