Imagine if that 35K BTC whale spamming the network was one of the mining cartels. I'd imagine it might even be profitable. Spend XXX on spam transactions and receive XXXX on high cost transactions. We need an ASIC killer me thinks. Hope lightning will be the one and it is secure.
I don't see how it could be anyone but a miner. Who would be willing to throw away hundreds of millions of dollars without the possibility of reclaiming it or the higher fees from elsewhere it forces?