Valued at a lofty $14 billion, with a minimum buy-in of $1 million and a cap of $20 million per investor, this fire sale, orchestrated through Goldman's Petershill Partners, comes hot on the heels of SEBI's brutal takedown of Jane Street Group LLC in July 2025.

India's ban on Jane Street and seizure of ?4,844 crore ($566–570 million) in alleged unlawful gains for manipulating the Bank Nifty index sent shockwaves through Wall Street's quant elite, and now Millennium—implicated in a parallel probe—finds itself in the crosshairs. Goldman's rush to sell screams one thing: the fear that Millennium's alleged dirty laundry, tied to the Jane Street saga, could unravel a broader exodus of big investors from hedge funds and quant giants in the months ahead.

This isn't just a transaction; it's a glaring signal that even Wall Street's mightiest are sweating under SEBI's gaze. The Jane Street crackdown exposed how high-frequency trading (HFT) and quant funds feast on India's retail-driven derivatives market, where 93 percent of traders lose money.

Now, with Millennium under investigation for similar tactics, Goldman's exit strategy suggests a chilling trend: large investors may be bolting from hedge funds and quant shops as regulatory risks mount. From Nuvama Wealth Management's Jane Street-linked stake sale to Ray Dalio's dramatic exit from Bridgewater Associates, the hedge fund world seems trembling, and the vultures are circling.

Goldman's Great Escape: Selling Millennium Amid SEBI's Wrath

Goldman Sachs' move to market a $2 billion stake in Millennium, announced in August 2025, is no routine deal—it's a calculated retreat from a ticking time bomb. Millennium, a multistrategy juggernaut founded by Israel "Izzy" Englander, is neck-deep in SEBI's probe, sparked by a 2024 U.S. court battle where Jane Street accused it of stealing a billion-dollar India options trading strategy. The settlement in December 2024 buried the lawsuit, but SEBI's investigation into Millennium's trading patterns—suspected of mirroring Jane Street's manipulative "Intra-day Index Manipulation" and "Extended Marking the Close" tactics—has only intensified.

Sources whisper that SEBI is dissecting Millennium's trade data, hunting for evidence of coordinated trades that distorted index prices, exploiting India's retail-heavy options market.