The quant trading heavyweight rebuilt its Bitcoin ETF exposure during the second quarter, with BlackRock’s fund accounting for most of the position.
Jane Street – the popular quant trading firm with a heavy orientation toward crypto – disclosed more than $1 billion in U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF holdings as of the second quarter of this year.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is currently dominating its portfolio. According to the firm’s latest Form 13F, filed on August 14th with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Jane Street holds roughly $828 million invested in IBIT, alongside other positions in products including Fidelity’s FBTC and Grayscale’s GBTC.
The filing covers the overall securities the firm holds at the end of the reporting period rather than direct Bitcoin ownership.
With that in mind, it turns out that the quant trading heavyweight also expanded its exposure across crypto exchange-traded funds beyond Bitcoin. As CryptoPotato recently reported, the same Q2 filing showed it holding more than 1.2 million shares of Bitwise’s spot XRP ETF, compared with just 20,605 shares three months earlier.
Jane Street also reported positions in XRP products from Franklin Templeton, Grayscale, Canary Capital, and 21Shares.
The Bitcoin numbers represent a serious increase from the first quarter. The company had previously cut its IBIT position by around 71% to about 5.9 million shares, which were worth approximately $225 million before rebuilding the stake during the second quarter.
That said, the holdings shouldn’t necessarily be interpreted as a one-sided bullish bet on Bitcoin. The firm is one of the largest market makers in the industry, and these filings provide only a quarter-end snapshot of long positions. They do not show the firm’s complete short, futures, swaps, or exposure to other derivative products.
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