Is Jane Street Behind the 2022 Crypto Collapse?

The bankruptcy administrator winding down Terraform Labs has sued high-frequency trading firm Jane Street, alleging it used confidential information to front-run trades and exit positions hours before the Terra ecosystem collapsed in May 2022, wiping out an estimated $50 billion in market value in under a week.

The 83-page complaint, filed February 23 in a federal court in New York by court-appointed administrator Todd Snyder, names Jane Street Group alongside co-founder Robert Granieri and employees Bryce Pratt and Michael Huang. Jane Street has called the lawsuit "desperate" and "baseless," insisting the losses resulted from fraud by Terraform's own leadership.

What Did Jane Street Allegedly Do?

The lawsuit centers on a ten-minute window on May 7, 2022, that Snyder argues set off the chain of events leading to Terra's total collapse, according to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal. 

According to the complaint, Terraform quietly withdrew 150 million TerraUSD (UST) from Curve's 3pool, one of the primary decentralized liquidity pools used for stablecoin trading. A liquidity pool is a collection of funds locked in a smart contract that allows traders to swap tokens without a traditional buyer and seller on the other side. Removing large amounts from such a pool destabilizes pricing for everyone still using it.

Less than ten minutes after Terraform's withdrawal, and before any public announcement was made, a wallet linked to Jane Street allegedly pulled another 85 million UST from the same pool. According to the filing, that was the single largest transaction ever recorded in that pool at the time. The combined removal of 235 million UST severely disrupted liquidity and caused UST to slip below its $1 peg, triggering panic across the market.

Snyder said: 

"Jane Street exploited market relationships to manipulate the market to its advantage during a pivotal event in cryptocurrency history."

The Private Chat That The Lawsuit Says Started It All

The complaint traces the alleged information pipeline back to February 2022. Bryce Pratt, identified as a former Terraform intern who later joined Jane Street, is accused of creating a private group chat titled "Bryce's Secret" with a Terraform software engineer and the company's head of business development. Snyder alleges this channel was used to pass material nonpublic information to Jane Street ahead of the crisis.

Material nonpublic information, often referred to as MNPI in financial and legal contexts, means private facts that would move a market price if made public. Trading on MNPI is the basis of insider trading law in traditional finance, and this lawsuit attempts to apply that same framework to crypto markets.

How Did The Terra Ecosystem Actually Collapse?

To understand the significance of the allegations, it helps to know how TerraUSD worked.

UST was an algorithmic stablecoin, meaning it did not hold actual dollars in reserve. Instead, it relied on a mint-and-burn mechanism linked to its sister token, LUNA. When UST traded below $1, the protocol encouraged holders to burn UST and mint new LUNA, theoretically pushing the price back up. When confidence breaks down, however, that same mechanism can accelerate a collapse rather than arrest it.

Once the peg cracked on May 7 and 8, the algorithm began printing massive quantities of LUNA to absorb UST redemptions. Supply flooded the market, LUNA's price cratered, and confidence in the system evaporated. By May 13, UST was trading below $0.15 and LUNA had fallen to fractions of a cent. Retail investors who had deposited savings into Anchor Protocol, attracted by its advertised 20% annual yield, watched their funds disappear. Some lost homes and retirement savings.

What Does Jane Street Say?

Jane Street has pushed back hard. A spokesperson told reporters from Bloomberg the case is "a transparent attempt to extract money when it is well-established that the losses suffered by Terra and Luna holders were the result of a multi-billion dollar fraud perpetrated by the management of Terraform Labs."

The firm has vowed to defend itself against what it calls "baseless, opportunistic claims."

That defense is not without foundation. Do Kwon, Terraform's co-founder, pleaded guilty to two criminal counts in August 2024 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Terraform also agreed to pay approximately $4.5 billion to settle a civil securities lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company filed for bankruptcy in January 2024.

What Zerohedge's Analysis Adds

Analyst account Zerohedge offered a sharper reading of the situation, writing: 

"Jane Street was behind the 2022 crypto winter, destroying Terraform by first depegging the token and destroying the ecosystem, then pretending it would rescue Terra, while effectively soaking up what little value remained." 

The post also claimed that if Kwon had disclosed Jane Street's involvement publicly, Terraform might have survived and Kwon might have avoided prison. These are unverified claims, but they reflect the severity with which some market observers view the allegations.

Why This Lawsuit Could Change How Crypto Insider Trading Is Defined

Legal analysts have noted that if the allegations are proven, the case could redraw the boundaries of insider trading liability in crypto markets. Under a misappropriation theory, liability would not require a formal corporate insider relationship. Instead, any market participant who obtained confidential information from a protocol team and used it to trade against the market could face exposure.

That broadens the definition of "insider" significantly. Private group chats and informal back channels could be treated as the functional equivalent of a corporate boardroom, meaning insider status could extend to anyone with direct access to a protocol's internal crisis communications.

This lawsuit against Jane Street follows a separate $4 billion suit Snyder filed against Jump Trading in December 2025, alleging similar misconduct during the same collapse. Both cases are ongoing.

Resources

1. The 83-page complaint

2. Report by The WallStreet 1: Jane Street Accused of Insider Trading That Helped Collapse Terraform

3. Report by The WallStreet 1: Jump Accused of Contributing to Collapse of Terraform, Do Kwon’s Crypto Empire

4. Report by Bloomberg: Jane Street Sued for Insider Trading by Terraform Administrator

5. Publication by Jiageng Liu, Igor Makarov and Antoinette Schoar from MIT Management Sloan School: Anatomy of a Run: The Terra Luna Crash

6. Zerohedge on X: Posts on Feb 23 and 24