Jane Street Acquires 6% Stake in Bitcoin Miner Iris Energy

Wall Street trading firm Jane Street and its subsidiaries have acquired a 6% stake in Bitcoin mining giant Iris Energy, according to a recent SEC filing.

The Schedule 13G filing, submitted on Friday, shows that Jane Street Group holds a total of 11,797,987 shares in Iris Energy as of Dec. 31, which represents a 6% stake in the fifth-largest public Bitcoin mining firm by production. Iris Energy mined 521 BTC in January with a realized hashrate of 28.93 EH/s accounting for 3.71% of Bitcoin mining’s production market share.

The filing notes that the shares are held through Jane Street Capital, Jane Street Options, and Jane Street Global Trading, marking the firm’s entry as a material investor in Iris Energy.

The investment comes amid continued growth in the Bitcoin mining industry, which has seen increased institutional ownership. The filing specifies that Jane Street is a passive investor and has no intent to influence the management or operations of Iris Energy, distinguishing it from activist investors, such as those who reportedly took positions in Riot Platforms to push for its exploration into high-performance computing (HPC).

Jane Street is a global proprietary trading firm known for its high-speed trading strategies and market-making activities. The firm operates across multiple asset classes, including equities, options, and cryptocurrencies.

While Jane Street is typically tight-lipped about its operational disclosures, the Financial Times reported in 2024, based on a prospectus it obtained, that Jane Street Group expected its Q1 2024 net trading revenue to be roughly $4.4 billion with a profit margin exceeding 70%. Additionally, Jane Street is said to have accounted for 10.4% of all North American equity trading in 2023, up from 7.6% in 2022, according to the Financial Times.