₹36,671 Cr in 21 Days! How This U.S. Firm Fooled Stock Market India

Every once in a while, a news story comes along that makes people stop and ask, how did this happen? Recently, one such incident caught everyone’s attention when SEBI, the body that looks after India’s stock markets, banned a big American trading firm named Jane Street from doing any trading in India.

This wasn’t just a small issue—it involved ₹36,671 crore in trades and what SEBI says was unfair manipulation of the Indian stock market. The news was reported by Hindustan Times on July 3, 2025.

Jane Street is a well-known company based in the United States. It is involved in what is called high-frequency or algorithmic trading. This means they use smart computers and code to make very fast trades in the stock market. Apart from India, the firm works globally and has offices in cities like New York, London, Hong Kong, and Amsterdam.

According to the report, Jane Street made around $20.5 billion in revenue in the past year. In India, from January 2023 to March 2025, it earned nearly ₹5 billion in profit—but (Securities Exchange Board of India) SEBI now says part of that was done in an unfair way.

SEBI carried out a deep investigation and wrote a 105-page report on the matter. According to this report, Jane Street and a few related companies were involved in a method that SEBI believes was meant to mislead other traders. They would first push up the price of a major Indian index called Bank Nifty early in the morning. This made it look like the market was strong.

Then, near the end of the day, they would sell off a large number of shares and futures, pushing the market back down. This up-and-down movement helped them make money by trading options, a kind of financial product in stock market.

SEBI found that this same type of trading happened on 21 expiry days—these are the days when monthly option contracts end. The timing and scale of the trades, SEBI says, were carefully planned to influence the final prices, giving Jane Street an unfair advantage. They did not break any normal market rules on the surface, but SEBI said the pattern showed a clear intent to manipulate.

From all these trades, SEBI calculated that Jane Street made a total gain of ₹36,671 crore. This included ₹44,358 crore in profit from index options. But they also had some losses—₹7,208 crore in stock futures, ₹191 crore in index futures, and ₹288 crore in cash market trades. Even after these losses, the net result was still a large gain. Out of that, SEBI believes that ₹4,843 crore came from trades that were not fair and should be returned.

Because of this, SEBI passed an interim order on July 3, 2025. It banned Jane Street and four other related entities from doing any trading in India’s stock market. It also told them to put the ₹4,843 crore into an escrow account, which means the money is kept safely aside under the supervision of the regulator.

Their bank accounts in India were also frozen during this time. SEBI said this action was necessary to protect the markets and investors while the full investigation continues. Jane Street, in response, denied the accusations. They said their trading followed all the rules and they plan to work with SEBI. They may also appeal the order by going to a higher authority in India called the Securities Appellate Tribunal.

Even though this case is very serious, experts say it will not hurt the overall market in India. The Indian derivatives market is one of the biggest in the world, and it remains strong and active. But this incident has raised important questions about fairness in trading, especially when large firms with advanced technology are involved.