Buddy, this is not like what are you thinking, everyone needs money but saying that whales need money sounds weird because whales already own tons of money they just diversify their assets and manage their funds to avoid devastation, and a maximum of the time they store money in gold reserves and other assets but on the same time they try to take risks to gain huge returns as they already own a lot of money so by proper risk management and investment strategy they can generate more tons of money.
Market manipulation is not for instant profits it is for cheap accumulation and better risk management, they throw some money into the dump market and then they trap the weak hands to fill up their bags. The ending is the same as you said but in a very sharp way.
It means this showed only that altcoins value in the market depends on Bitcoin plus the development and innovation of altcoins in this community.
Hmm, Bro, I was here with the same perspective but the market is developed to some levels now, Before the last halving there was a circle of Dominance, Bitcoin-Season and Altcoin-Season let me explain it; As about Dominance we all know, In Bitcoin season the scenarios goes in direction whenever Bitcoins pumps in its rally altcoin market faces pressure because people use to sell altcoins to buy bitcoin for profit booking and vice versa whenever Bitcoin on its peak loses Dominance Altcoins pumps.
But as you can see now in this rally the market pumped and the whole market showed up good gains rather than facing the pressure of Bitcoins dominance.
Slowlyy market is developing now the volatility effect is not as similar as it was, still, the point is valid that Market follows the Bitcoin which is a natural thing because Bitcoin is the > 50% Dominator of the market and if it will face any sort of volatility it will put the impact on the others as well.