You're right about whales but i don't see any pump and dumps happening recently. There have been many fud in the news and social media about how many countries are banning or regulating exchanges.
Fud regarding the ban of exchanges by South Korea has been debunked, and was never really taken that serious by the market. It was a much needed correction that took the price down from the peak levels we reached last year. Sure, the fud might have triggered noobs and other gamblers to contribute as well, but there is no real damage. Current levels are exactly where we belong, and still 10x the price of last year at current day.And then there's the high fees with slow transaction speed. We really.can't expect btc to breakout with these issues lingering
The 'high' fees have dropped significantly due to the bull run that lost momentum. Currently the average fee is $5, which isn't all that bad to be honest. If you don't have transactions that need to get quick confirmations, you can even just include $3 in fees. And how is the transaction speed slow? It's pretty much instant in most cases. There is a difference between confirmation speed and transaction speed. 
So, no there are nu further issues left, but even knowing that, without any bullish events to focus on, not much will happen.