Regulations saved the companies in those stock markets, not the stock market itself. The companies that leveraged their positions insanely actually lost a ton of money when the stock market crashed and right after that got saved by the regulations and goverments and they reinvested when the market was crashed and of course the new money coming in fixed a bit of the stock market which took time but the people in those markets actually lost a ton of money. So if cryptocurrency ever gets regulated I am 100% sure that whales will be saved whenever something bad happens and we will be the one thrown under the bus.
with regulation will certainly increase investor confidence. moreover there is legality from government, which will be safer. and it is true that whales will lose space to move. that means market will return to health
I'm not sure why people think regulation on crypto market will be same as regulation in stock exchange. It's completely different environment and what worked in stock exchange may or may not work in crypto market due to high volatility. I don't think whales will just go away. Regulation may give people an illusion of more security.