The quiet giant of Wall Street has opened its books. Jane Street, the quantitative trading and market-making behemoth, posted a net trading revenue of $39.6 billion in 2025, surpassing traditional investment banks like JPMorgan ($35.8 billion) and Goldman Sachs ($31.1 billion). Even more striking: total compensation reached $9.38 billion, more than double the previous year. With roughly 3,500 employees, the average pay per person hit $2.68 million — nearly seven times the average at Goldman Sachs. Entry-level traders and quantitative researchers can earn between $300,000 and $700,000 in total compensation.
$2.68 Million Average Pay, Entry-Level Up to $700K
Jane Street's talent retention strategy is simple: offer numbers no one can refuse. The compensation pool accounted for about 24% of total revenue, a healthy ratio in high-frequency market making. Senior or top performers easily earn millions or even tens of millions annually. The firm's ability to pay such sums rests on its extraordinary profitability: adjusted EBITDA was roughly $31.2 billion, and profit margins stood at 65% to 70%, thanks to the low fixed-cost structure of quantitative trading.
Revenue of $39.6 Billion Crushes Peers, Own Capital at $45 Billion
The 2025 bonanza was driven by surging market volatility and explosive demand for ETF liquidity. As one of the world's top liquidity providers, Jane Street capitalized on its algorithms and cross-asset arbitrage advantages to profit from every major market swing. After deducting compensation, most profits were retained as equity. The firm's member equity (own capital) has swelled to roughly $45 billion, giving it even more firepower for trading and cross-border investments — such as its early strategic bet on AI unicorn Anthropic, which yielded substantial additional gains.