Obviously, when bitcoin whales sell-off, bitcoin price will crash, they are the main reason why it happens in the first place.
Even in the regulated crypto market, whales can dump all they've got, no one can forbid whales to sell their assets, it's a free market.
In a small market capitalization, manipulation is inevitable, but it will change as time goes on after more adopters hold bitcoin.
Yes, so we should know what we will be our strategy too when this happens, we should know how to read the market, for most holders and investors, once they have seen that the whalers are selling then they also selling their Bitcoin and converting it to stable coin, they are just buying again once the price of Bitcoin becomes stable and no more drama from those manipulators, if you know how the market works, for sure you will not panic and you will know how to take advantage too.