Whatever the goal is, the person is losing a great deal of money doing it. It would be in the tens of thousands by now. I'm not sure I believe someone would spend that much out of fear.
For all we know, it could be an extremely large, ruthless investor preparing to pump the coin hard. It fits the pattern perfectly anyway - in that scenario, the same person pushing the price down would be eating the panic on the other side of the book. Then at some point, the manipulation disappears, the person pumps the coin and laughs all the way to the bank with all the unnaturally cheap coins he picked up.
Not saying 'pump inc!!' or anything like that, but it is definitely a possible explanation.
One can lose tens of thousands of dollars in a scenario like this and still gain buying power in BC. All that matters is they push the price down faster than they lose BTC. I guess the question is : will this person of group be able to buy enough coins at the bottom? And the answer to this is always an unfortunate yes.