I just checked their current BTC withdraw fee and found it's 0.001BTC (about $16.9). I'm sure the fee was 0.0005BTC or lower few months ago. It's unlikely they perform consolidation with such high fees, so your speculation could be right.
CZ at it again, if he isn't covering up something... maybe trying to raise funds to help other exchanges that reached out for some financial help without using his emergency fund and this is certainly one way to cash in easy through TX fees. If not this could be a monopoly game that is aimed to cause panic that will hurt smaller exchanges and will all be at his doorstep for financial aid.