Opendoor's stock soars after Jane Street's 'validation.' What comes next?

By James Rogers

Jane Street's stake has provided some respite to Opendoor investors after the stock pulled back sharply over the past couple weeks

Opendoor has seen its stock skyrocket amid a retail frenzy that sparked comparisons with earlier meme-stock explosions.

Shares of Opendoor Technologies Inc. rallied Thursday on the disclosure that quantitative-trading firm Jane Street Group LLC has amassed a stake in the e-commerce platform for residential-real-estate transactions.

Jane Street's stake marks the latest chapter in an eventful few months for the heavily shorted Opendoor (OPEN), which saw its stock skyrocket amid a retail frenzy that sparked comparisons with earlier meme-stock explosions. The stake, which was revealed in a 13G filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Wednesday, could also herald something of a shift in how the stock is perceived.

Jane Street has accumulated 44,031,310 shares of Opendoor, amounting to a 5.9% stake, valued at around $362 million at Wednesday's closing. That would be enough to make Jane Street the third-largest shareholder, according to FactSet data.

The news offered some respite for Opendoor investors after a recent pullback. The stock rallied 10.5% on Thursday and has now run up more than 25% in two days, but it was still down 16% since it closed at a 31/2-year high of $10.52 on Sept. 11.

The retail community views Jane Street's stake as a "validation" of the broader opportunity that noted Opendoor bull Eric Jackson and others have been pointing to since mid-July, said Tom Bruni, head of markets and retail investor insights at Stocktwits.

"It also signals that with the stock back firmly above $5, institutional players may feel comfortable getting involved in the name," he told MarketWatch. "One caveat is that Jane Street is a quantitative firm, so some retail investors are concerned that the investment is primarily based on momentum and other market-driven factors, rather than the fundamental thesis being attractive to them."

Jackson, the founder of EMJ Capital, is a high-profile champion of Opendoor, rallying retail support around what has been dubbed the "OPEN army." He has scorned the description of Opendoor as a meme stock, describing it instead as a "cult stock."

Jackson has also pushed for leadership changes at the company. Opendoor recently announced a new chief executive and the return of two co-founders to the company's board. The company's new CEO, Kaz Nejatian, has also been engaging with the retail community on social media.

Stocktwits' Bruni said that with the stock trading 20 times higher than its all-time lows, the next catalyst will need to come from Opendoor's management. "The executive [and] board shuffle and their willingness to begin speaking with retail is a welcome shift, but now the question retail has is, what's next?" he told MarketWatch. "What is the new leadership team's plan to transform this business and drive it towards profitability?"

Bruni notes that what's known as iBuying - when companies purchase homes direct from sellers - and real-estate brokerage are highly competitive and challenging to succeed in, so the retail community wants to know what will make Opendoor's approach stand out.

Stocktwits says that at the moment, sentiment and activity levels for Opendoor on its platform are well off their recent highs. In the last two weeks, market momentum has shifted some active trader attention away from Opendoor to names like Better Home & Finance Holding Co. (BETR), quantum-computing stocks, nuclear-energy plays and other stocks related to the artificial-intelligence theme that are exhibiting stronger short-term momentum, according to Bruni.

"From a trading perspective, a break above the recent highs in Opendoor is what the retail community is looking for to jump back in for the next leg higher in this stock," he said.

Opendoor shares have risen 447.5% in 2025, far outpacing the S&P 500 index's SPX gain of 12%.

-James Rogers

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09-25-25 1921ET