There is another possibility here. Doing things that are negative PR and hurt the steemit platform.
Steem price falls, while some of these people have been actively powering down for some time.
Some of them claim to be transferring funds to Poloniex, etc not to take them out of the platform...
So if this is true... another way to reap rewards.... Why grow the platform now when you can help drive the prices down, sit on the money, and turn around and buy massive amounts of steem power on the cheap for a completely new account under a new name.
The @dan account may be powerful enough to fight back now, but there is a way to fight that for the despots that don't like their "authority" challenged. Sell, Sell, Sell, while also doing things that cause negative PR for steemit and the community. Price falls... Buy, Buy, Buy... Now do what can to uplift the community and hopefully the price some, and if the plan works they are now more powerful than @dan and other whales... Their despotism can continue unchecked.
If it needs to be done again they can repeat the cycle.
From a purely financial perspective this does make sense.
I can assure you I have never placed a single vote (up or down) for the purpose of market manipulation. I can't speak for others.
Yeah I didn't think you did. You've remained pretty consistent in terms of your activities... your account didn't suddenly power down massively around the same time some huge new accounts suddenly appeared.