Looking at how the price moved this year, i think there's logic behind what you said dude and probably that's why all these speculations indicating that we'll bottom out at 4 or 3k isn't that valid. Whales and high holders have the say in this kind if market.
only to an extent. whales and large miners can withhold coins from the market, but nobody has this market cornered. and as the years go by, coins become more and more distributed. something like 5-10% of americans now own crypto. so the whales of yester-years really aren't as important anymore.
what matters most is all the supply from bagholders from 2017 (including institutions like novagratz' fund etc) and whether or not organic demand can outweigh that.