Jane Street deposits ₹4,843 crore in escrow after SEBI order, requests to lift 'certain conditional restrictions'

Jane Street has deposited more than ₹4,843 crore in an escrow account in compliance with an interim order by India’s markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said on Monday.

The payment follows SEBI’s July 3 order directing the US-based trading firm to deposit what it described as “unlawful gains” from manipulative trading strategies employed over two years.

The funds have been credited to an escrow account with a lien marked in favour of SEBI, the regulator said in a statement.

Jane Street told SEBI it had undertaken the deposit “without prejudice to their rights and remedies which remain available to them in law and equity,” the statement said.

The firm has also requested SEBI to lift “certain conditional restrictions” imposed under the interim order, following the creation of the escrow account.

“This request is currently under examination by SEBI in accordance with the directions of the interim order,” the regulator said.

Earlier this month, SEBI barred Jane Street entities from accessing India’s securities markets after a sweeping investigation found the firm engaged in what it called an “Intra-day Index Manipulation Strategy” between January 2023 and March 2025.

According to SEBI’s interim order, Jane Street’s group entities cumulatively earned over ₹43,289 crore in profits from trading index options, while incurring nearly ₹200 crore in intraday losses on underlying stocks and futures.

The regulator alleged the strategy involved aggressively buying BANKNIFTY constituent stocks and futures in early trading to push up the index, before reversing the trades later in the day to benefit its options positions.

Jane Street has disputed SEBI’s findings and is planning to contest the order.