Whales don't control the market, they influence people with news and rumors.
sometimes, they can control the market by the increase and decrease the price. we can see this is happening over and over. the whales have their ability to play with the price because they a lot of money to move the price. but they cannot always play with the price because once people move in the market, they cannot play again and they will follow with the market. and yes, the whales are always taken our money because they can easy to make people become panic and we should not follow the people which is panic and we need to stay calm for a while.
Whales really do earn big money by manipulating the market but I don't think that it is already that it was really their doing. It is believe that they can because they have lots of money and when people panic sells, this is when they get big profit. With their money, they can do big investments on lower price causing the market price to rise and them to earn. It is pretty tricky but still, it is just and observation that is not yet proven.