Philadelphia Fed Study Finds Small Bitcoin Traders Rapidly Follow Whale Alerts

A Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia working paper reveals that retail and medium-sized Bitcoin traders rapidly mirror large transactions following public whale alerts. Examining transfers exceeding $50 million between December 2017 and December 2025, researchers found small and medium wallet activity surges within 15 minutes of a notification. Buy participation increased by 14.81 to 23.72 percentage points after whale buy alerts, while sell participation climbed by 12.95 to 29.52 percentage points after sell alerts. Directional effects dissipated within an hour. In contrast, Ethereum traders demonstrated little to no directional response to similar alerts.