Am wondering why do you mention Aug 1st now?
Considering that BIP91 is locked in, Aug 1st is most likely irrelevant date(unless miners faked signaling). July 23 is when BIP91 is activated and all blocks should signal BIP141. Id appreciate your honest response, cuz if you didn't know that, it tells me that 90% of people are not aware of it.

Just to add, I agree that it was pumped by whales, personally I was following several markets, bitfinex only had for sure over 10k (more like 20k) eth manipulating price.