i'm always amazed at how little devs know about markets. They rapidly distance themselves from the idea of a "defense" fund.
Companies listed on global exchanges always have a market strategy. They are constantly buying and selling their own stock at key technical levels. If you think your coin / product is valuable and has potential, this is one of the ways you show it. You show investors that your product has value and price is an indicator of what that value is.
This is called a market strategy. And in the altcoin environment, I'd say its essential to growing a market in a healthy and sustainable way.
Competition is FIERCE. There are No guarantees that volume will return.
I'm sure all devs are aware about the markets. But when a dev is also accumulating, for a stability fund, or for whatever reason, they may also behave like an investor too.
Meaning... they know when a coin has been pumped (sell high)... and when it will fall back. Devs can manipulate the markets pretty easily if they try to.
I'm not saying this is the case here, but pretend you were a dev with a lot of ICO money and wishing for 10% of the coin supply (or however many they want). They wouldn't put up a wall at 1500 ... it'd probably make more sense at 750 instead. I expect a lot of devs (especially ico devs) do have 'defense funds' but they aren't actually used for defending a certain price (unless it falls below ico levels). It's to accumulate.