Bitcoin Traders React Faster to Whale Signals than Ethereum Users
A Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia working paper found that public notifications of large crypto transfers were followed by sharply different trading activity on Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The researchers matched public Whale Alert notification times with on-chain transactions through the end of 2025, identifying whale wallets as those that had made at least one transfer worth more than $50 million. The study found that non-whale Bitcoin wallets became active and traded in the alerted whale's direction most strongly during the first 15 minutes.
Ethereum participation remained comparatively stable, with only a slight increase among large non-whale sellers after whale sells. The authors interpret the gap as a market-structure difference, suggesting that Ethereum activity often runs through exchanges, smart contracts, and layer-2 venues, where many user transactions can be aggregated into larger balance transfers.