Is there any evidence that these mysterious 'whales' really control the bitcoin market, or is this a myth generated as people try to understand why bitcoin prices go up and down?
It is a myth, while in theory they could exercise a great control over the market you will see that many whales have not moved their coins for years and many of them are only doing one thing and that is to accumulate even more coins, they are not selling so the crash in the market was not caused by the whales the crash was caused by the forces of the market.