from my point of view I think people are scared and withdrawing as much as they can before btc goes down more
I don't think this is right - if more and more people were withdrawing their coins, the mempool would be full. But the mempool is clearing which means LESS transactions are being made (less people sending coins from their wallets to the exchanges).
That assessment is not necessarily correct. You can sell up a number of positions on exchange and move a single transaction, while when buying may have made numerous smaller transactions over time. Also people moving away from Bitcoin to ETH/LTC/BCH for moving funds between exchange and on/off ramps. All the mempool tells us is Bitcoin is being used less.