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

A working paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has identified distinct trading behaviors between Bitcoin and Ethereum following public notifications of large cryptocurrency transfers, known as whale alerts.

The study found that non-whale Bitcoin wallets exhibit significant same-direction trading activity within the first 15 minutes of an alert. For instance, following whale buys, buy participation increased by 14.81 percentage points for small wallets and 23.72 percentage points for medium wallets. Similarly, following whale sells, sell participation rose by 12.95 percentage points for small wallets and 29.52 percentage points for medium wallets. This activity typically returns to normal levels within an hour.

In contrast, Ethereum participation remained comparatively stable across most wallet groups. The most notable response in the Ethereum market was observed among the largest non-whale cohort following whale sells. The research, which analyzed thousands of transactions through the end of 2025, notes that these findings show associations around alerts rather than proving that the notifications themselves caused the trades.