While you have made many good points,I don't think this one has any basis.
It is evident that foundations are not buying the coin to support the price, which is why it has fell so sharply. I have seen an 18 neu (less than .10 usd) sale drop the price 10%.
The increase in wealth displayed on these graphs comes not from buying on the exchange but instead from "interest" their accounts are gaining from staking.
For proof you need only look at the block chain. About every two minutes two PoS award gets posted and they usually result in a payout of 1000-10000 in Neu.
Because they hold so much neu, their accounts stake while others are waiting weeks or months to stake.
That's why their holdings are growing so much, not because they are buying on Bittrex. The buy limit orders on Bittrex are another fraud. As soon as the bid gets anywhere near the bigger buy orders they are cancelled and re-entered with a much lower bid.
For example, the 18+btc bid a day or two ago was "buying" at 0.00002375..f and was much larger... as soon as some one bought few, the order was cancelled and the bid was lowered to .00002000. Those orders a facade giving the impression that coin is actually being backed by real money.
You believe any real investor would buy this:

...on Bittrex? I know that their holdings grow because of staking.
But there is no staking on bittrex. So why should anybody else buy millions on bittrex and hold them on bittrex?
And where would the price be without the buy-walls? And it's visible that the first two accounts grow when there is selling.
Edit: You're right that the foundations are not buying if that implies you would see it on the foundation addresses. What I say: It's the team and they hold it on bittrex. Now it's at 4,225,552, so the screenshots are not actual.