I agree with your opinion that some whales would sell some (but not all) BTC's and take profits and reinvest it in a smaller currency with higher growth potential, but I would think these whales would be more interested in something like EOS or IOTA. At the time of this writing, EOS is currently at $1.92 and IOTA is at $0.54. IOTA Is $20 million away from bumping DASH to take over the #7 position. Ripple would probably be my #3 pick after EOS and IOTA.
Thanks for writing this post as I found myself spending $6 to get a book of Ripple for me to do further research right in the middle of reading your post!