Flag trails are a feature of hive.vote.
I don't think the whales are dumping, they are acquiring more according to the charts, it's the people the whales/curation gangs are voting rewards to that are dumping.
If somebody pulled the history of the trending page, I'm betting that the hodling is minimal.
Mark hasn't stated his reason, to me.
More voices equal more dissent.
Not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning.