I've not been following Bitcoin news for a few years now but I seem to recall there were lots of reports about BTC "whales" making up a significant proportion of the overall wealth on BTC. And how they used their position to manipulate the market to some extent. A quick Google seems to back my assumptions too, eg https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/052014/why-b...

Now I'm not saying that the OPs theory about this being a pump and dump is likely correct. But I don't think it is any more speculative than the other ideas offered here (jilted ex / copy&paste error / testing code that mistakenly shipped / etc)

Inevitably when you see people talking about "whales" they end up linking to exchange wallets (which naturally experience activity that both leads and lags trade).

And they're also talking about parties controlling 1000 BTC levels... which, while an astounding amount of money, are still small compared to the markets.

I can't say it's impossible, but I'd rate most of the other speculation above it.

Then again, nothing stops someone from trying something that won't work...

MtGox, Tether?