There was actually a small group of us who were actually using the internal market to absorb the Steem.
This was actually post 2017, this was actually February 2018 once we realize the dumping is to much for the market to absorb but one witnesses in particular encourage witnesses to set a bias.

At that time, a lot of STEEM was bought by a large number of authors who chose to get 50% as SBD. Because SBD was between $2 and $4 the whole spring, that meant relatively cheap STEEM.

The end result was precisely what we are experiencing now. The dump of Steem on the market cannot be absorb as there aren't enough buyers.

When STEEM went to > $8 in early January, of course it was going to be dumped! In the first half of 2018, there was still a lot of demand of STEEM, relatively speaking. It didn't go down in a crash but like a balloon that had a small hole in it.

The same thing was tried again in April but by then it was pointless as the dump was to intense and the Asians were effectively flag off the platform.

From a TA perspective, the late April pump was a pretty commonplace thing after the huge January pump.

Haejin actually start pump it in his group as he smell whats coming, folks actually think of him wrong as a selfish whale but he single handed has been pumping Steem and SBD in his group. Well we know the story with him, he basically got flagged out.

Haejin couldn't have pumped STEEM single handedly. SBD maybe but not STEEM.

Contrary the belief the guy resisted dumping, I am still puzzled with him. Well the burial was the increase SBD to 10%, so they haven't really learned anything. Even with these changes, its the same set of people making money and the useless flagging, you got to let minnows grow and feel part of the process rather than targeting folks with these flags. You can actually follow the charts and see what been taking place. I know folks want high Steem price but there is just to much Steem in circulation and the market cannot absorb the dump that's why the trend has been like that, the only time it jump ahead, SBD was the anchor but folks don't see it that way.

The mad early 2018 pump was the very reason SBD was printed in excess. Burning those coins did a number on STEEM when the Debt Ratio was approaching 10%. STEEM was pushed even lower than it otherwise would've.