Philadelphia Fed study finds Bitcoin traders react faster to whale signals than Ethereum users

A working paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reveals that Bitcoin traders respond more rapidly to large crypto transfer notifications compared to Ethereum users. The study indicates that non-whale Bitcoin wallets showed significant trading activity in the direction of alerted whale transactions within the first 15 minutes, while Ethereum participation remained stable. The research matched public Whale Alert notification times with on-chain transfers of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Wrapped Bitcoin through the end of 2025. A whale wallet was defined as one that executed at least one transfer exceeding 50000000 dollars, excluding large wallets linked to exchanges or smart contracts. The analysis found that after whale buys, Bitcoin buy participation surged by 14.81 percentage points for small wallets, 23.72 for medium wallets, and 3.50 for large wallets. Conversely, Ethereum's post-alert participation did not exhibit a similar response, with only the largest non-whale cohort showing a slight increase after whale sells. The study also noted that whale alerts temporarily increased Bitcoin volatility, while Ethereum's volatility decreased post-alert. The authors suggest that the differences in responses may stem from market structure, as Ethereum transactions often involve exchanges and smart contracts, leading to aggregated transfers. The findings are observational and highlight patterns in wallet activity and volatility around public alerts.

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