Plus who said the whale-cumulators only "sit pretty" and wait for their investments to grow? They manipulate the market because they want to get more of the plebs' money. It is a fun game for people like them.
For distinction: I believe that large players were responsible for the fall from 20k down to current price (perhaps a little higher actually). I do not believe that they would be responsible for any further fall given that 3k is already a good buying point for them and they also understand how pushing the market below long term price supports is going to make recovery much harder. The smaller guys (largely speaking) are a lot more clueless, they'll have bought at 20k and will now be selling at the current price, given how delicate the market is currently, if a lot of them finally decide to sell then that could push the price further down.