Nothing has happened to eth since 17th June. It has stayed pretty flat between 15 & 21 mBTC. The real test will be after the 20th July when they fork. Will it go back to 33mBTC or continue to mooch around the high teens? No one can tell?
This coin has the big banks behind it. I don't think it's a big bunch of small investors at all. Their forum activity is just not busy enough for that. But if the whales bail, and i wish that they would, they will not just jump on to another coin. I would love to see feathercoin or Groestl get some of that market cap but could you see a big bank wanting a slice of something that they couldn't manipulate?
No the whales will stay until the end.... IF there is one.
It will go to PoS at the end of the year and then the only people left making money will be the 250 validators that have bought a stake. That's when you will see it dumped hard by the little people, but the price will not matter then. The concept will have been proven and it will be retro fitted to the back end of the already existing banking system and the banks will lay off 45% of their back office staff as they will no longer be needed.
Short term pain for long term gain is the name of the game. It's like a game of Poker... your hand does not matter if you can out-bid all the other players and force them all to fold.
The guy in the street will never know the difference. The plastic card in his pocket will look the same only the chip in it will carry ethereum private keys instead of mastercard keys.... that is if mastercard is not one of the whales with a stake in ethereum.