Jane Street thrives amid record trading bonanza
Jane Street’s rapid expansion has continued apace in 2025, new debt documents show, as the secretive trading firm further cemented its place as a major rival to traditional investment banks after capturing a record trading revenue haul last year.
Jane Street estimates it made as much as US$7.2bn in net trading revenues in the first quarter, about 65% higher than last year. That came after it roughly doubled its full-year trading revenues in 2024 to US$20.5bn. The non-bank trading specialist made the disclosures on Wednesday to debt investors in the prospectus for an upsized US$1.35bn senior secured note due in 2033.
The bumper revenues reveal how Jane Street has capitalised on the tumultuous trading environment that has prevailed since Donald Trump’s reelection as US president in November – including recent tariff-induced volatility that has convulsed markets. It also underlines how Jane Street is increasingly challenging investment banks’ trading divisions that buy and sell stocks, bonds and other financial instruments on behalf of clients.
“A core part of our business is market-making and liquidity provision to different types of flows,” the Jane Street debt prospectus states. “We ... stand ready to buy or sell large volumes of assets. This can benefit all market participants by contributing to the creation of more efficient and transparent securities markets, increased liquidity, better execution and lower overall trading costs.”
A representative for Jane Street didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Traditional investment banks have also benefited from the rise in volatility and client trading volumes in recent months, although they have generally grown revenues at a slower pace. Boston Consulting Group said non-bank trading firms took a record 26% share of global markets revenues in 2024, up from 12% in 2018.
Goldman Sachs increased its trading revenues 13% last year to US$26.6bn, while JP Morgan expanded by 8% to about US$30bn. Jane Street’s 2024 revenue haul puts it just behind Morgan Stanley with US$20.6bn and makes it larger than Citigroup and Bank of America, although some analysts have questioned the fairness of such comparisons given the larger revenue share some trading firms – including Jane Street – generate from proprietary risk-taking.
Major force
The latest Jane Street investor documents lay bare what a major force it has become in global markets. In its core exchange-traded fund business, Jane Street said it averaged US$707bn of monthly ETF trading volumes globally in 2024 and accounted for nearly a quarter of all primary US-listed ETF market activity.
“We believe industry tailwinds, including continued adoption of ETFs, positions us favourably,” the firm said, noting that ETFs have recently grown to account for close to a third of US equity tape volumes. In equities more broadly, Jane Street said it accounted for more than 10% of North America markets activity last year.
Jane Street continued to leverage its ETF prowess in fixed income, where these easy-to-trade products have rapidly revolutionised the once-human-dominated world of corporate bond trading. In 2024, Jane Street said it averaged US$230bn of monthly fixed-income trading volumes and executed about US$260bn of portfolio trading volumes across the year.
The investor documents indicate that the firm continued to thrive in 2025’s volatile markets. The big five US investment banks have already reported strong first-quarter trading results, with equities desks faring particularly well. Jane Street’s preliminary estimate of US$7.1bn–$7.2bn in first-quarter net trading revenues would put it above Morgan Stanley, which generated US$6.7bn in the quarter.
Jane Street said its current quarterly performance as of April 18 is generally in line with the first quarter while noting that it couldn’t provide any assurances that this would continue through to June 30.