The skirmishes are perhaps a consequence of steem's poor performance relative to #bitcoin and other leading cryptocurrencies. At its highs in 2016, steem was worth over 0.006 BTC. Some of the whales may finally be realizing that the value of steem is inextricably tied to the crypto community's perception of steemit as a platform. Until that perception improves via constructive changes to steemit itself, then steem will likely continue to lag the broader market.