Crypto market can go down on its own even when no whales are dumping their bags, if you can watch the old crypto market chart compares to date chart you will see that crypto market can only be bullish for some time only which thus open door for bear market too, it's like walking in a circle
I agree, there's no need for the approval of the whales to send the market down to bearish. There really is the season when the market should become bearish and bullish. During the early days, there's probably a little influence from them and it's likely the market is working on its own. I believe today that it is still working on its own but with a huge contribution by the whales already. To sum up, while the market can definitely walk on its own, the whales can at least give that motion where it should head.