All orders are placed at or above price on coin market cap

This is my biggest problem with the "whales powering down" theory of the price slide.

With so much money in SP, it would be absurdly self destructive of them to not put asks in above the market price.

That is to say, its not like theyre just dumping their steem on the exchanges priced to sell immediately, no matter how far into the order book they have to push.

I think its much more likely for medium and small powerdowns to be doing this. Especially if theyre coming from non-market-savvy traders.