Chinese exchanges stop withdraws and the market goes down by less than $100
Almost perfect
It does sound like a fairy tale doesn't it?Almost perfect
With a happy ending now we are living in with the price now over $1000 and nicely rising ever slightly every passing hour.
I do think it is the ETF is to blame for this one.

Is it possible that the Chinese exchanges have been faking volumes even since the last talk with PBoC, which resulted in them starting to charge fees? That would help explain why this week's PBoC intervention hasn't had much of an impact.
I'm not sure about what speculative point you are making here that is of any significance?
Sure, we know that they were extensively faking volume, but after they discontinued margin trading and implementing fees, you want to suggest that they continued to fake volume in any kind of meaningful way that caused further PBOC intervention... that does not make sense. Those exchanges were already on the PBOC radar by the time the PBOC had already intervened to cause them to discontinue margin trading and to implement fees. The later intervention in regards to getting the exchanges to implement AML requirements is just a further intervention along the same theme... the lack of impact of the latest intervention might have more to do with the fact that the intervention had already started rather than the fact that the latest intervention does not have teeth.. because it is a bit of a bad precedent, no? to freeze the ability of BTC holders to move their BTC from the exchanges for 30 days... that seems quite a bad thing if you had BTC on the exchanges and just for the precedent that it potentially sets.
Oh good grief...
good grief what? I asked you to explain, and I provided my own assessment... but instead you gots nothing, except for finger pointing and implied whining that you are being picked on (but you are the one that spouted out the incomplete ideas in the first place that raised these kinds of questions, no?)