http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/06/what-is-happening-to-bitcoin-right-now/Note the quote. Exactly what i was thinking. It makes the most sense of all theories i've heard yet it's the hardest to believe for most here for some reason.
"Seems pretty clear to me. An early adopter decided $300 is their breaking point. They want to cash out their $9m before they miss their chance. Theyre not experienced with handling this amount of money because theyve never been rich before; they just got lucky. They dont have the connections to sell off-market so they decided to sell the way they know and the way thats guaranteed to work: a Bitstamp sell order below market. They could maybe get more money with a more sophisticated trading strategy but who cares? Theyll take their $9m and retire on a beach somewhere for the rest of their lives.
Thats what Id do if I had 30,000 BTC right now and I bet you would too."
The guy was looking at the price going down every hour and basically panic sold. Below 300 was just too much for him. He was losing 10.000's per day.
He moved the coins to Stamp, right away did a 5k dump to secure a good amount of money (his aim was a million) and when he saw there were buyers he put the rest up at 300.
Perfectly reasonable explanation.
He wasn't the bearwhale. He also isn't buying back. Just a guy who wanted out. Yes, that happens.
I agree this is true, it turned out that this was no manipulator but a mere fool who wasn't patient or experienced enough to split his selling upon multiple markets and over time, in addition to selling into a short-term highly depressed price. Yet you have to ask yourself where all this buying pressure came from that devoured 30k BTC @300.