From my reading, this simply has nothing to do with the Matthew Effect. They are measuring volume of transactions, not necessarily value and certainly not wealt

From my reading, this simply has nothing to do with the Matthew Effect. They are measuring volume of transactions, not necessarily value and certainly not wealth accumulation. Naturally, those who engage in many transactions initially are likely to engage in even more transactions in the future (ex. a new exchange starts with many transactions and gets even more over time). This has no correlation with actual wealth. If we were to apply this logic to the real world, one would reach the startling conclusion that delis are wealthier than high fashion boutiques.