Whales stopped again the uptrend by pushing the price down and hope weak hands [yadda yadda yadda]
Those whales weren't, by chance, responsible for the $100 spike a few days ago, were they?
That was natural, organic growth due to merchant adoption and sociopolitical macroeconomic fundamentals yadda yadda yadda?
Market anticipation of the halving & natural human "I don't want to miss out" sentiment. Of course it resulted in over-buying & fell back down again.
OP is overstating it, but I agree to an extent.
Markets anticipated the halvening back in 2009. If not for the halvening, Bitcoin would continue inflating at ~10% a year, as it is doing now.
Of course whales are "manipulating" the market, they want to make as much money as possible. That's how the market works, it's not a hippy charity.
"inflating at ~10% a year, as it is doing now" ....