The extreme escalation in transaction times is there to ensure the whales can cash out but that smaller investors cannot.
Whales can make large transactions, the fees do not mean as much to them.
At the same time the small investors cannot cash out because their investment is quite small compared to the fees.
The result is the following:
- Whales are cashing out, converting to fiat
- Newbies are buying from the whales in the hope of continues increases
- Existing smaller investors do not want to sell now (despite possible large profits) because of the high fees is you only have a small investment (Today another bitcoiner on this forum has to pay a 20$ fee for a 50$ transaction).
When the whales have completed the sell-off, smaller bitcoin investors can finally begin to sell and that will be the trigger for a complete collapse in the price.
And how you came to this conclusion anyway?
Did whales come to you and told you they are cashing out?
Rather the recent price depreciation gave those whales and many an opportunity to increase their BTC holdings. Actually completely opposite happens when BTC price falls. Whales are the one who buy in more and small investors who usually are panic sellers, panic sell their BTC. Look at the charts or if you don't understand them, ask someone. BTC is going for another bullish rally to $21k+ by this week end.