This is one of the problems of IOTA, just like Jinn or NXT. Too much marketing and worry for the price, instead for the real product and its application in the real world.
You shouldn't focus on the price or whales, you should focus just in the product.
You obviously haven't been following the project. Iota hasn't hyped anything, they haven't spent on marketing (and Nxt certainly wasn't known for marketing). Jinn already has partnerships with several corporations and POC's. If we just focused on the product, Bitcoin would be worth $1.