Bitcoin's Volatility Clock Ticks in Sync with Wall Street

A recent study has found that Bitcoin's volatility is increasingly following Wall Street's clock. The research, based on data from Kraken's XBT/USD market between 2016 and 2025, shows that the most volatile hours for Bitcoin now coincide with American business hours.

The study found that the nine hours from 13:00 to 21:59 UTC account for 50.6% of Bitcoin's daily realized variance in 2022-2025, up from 38.4% in 2016-2018. This represents a significant shift towards more concentrated price discovery during US trading hours.

The researchers used the timing of daylight-saving transitions to test whether Wall Street's influence is driving this change. They found that Bitcoin's volatility peak moved with the shift in the American trading session, moving from 14:00 UTC during US daylight-saving time to 15:00 UTC during standard time.