Whether you call them dog whales, market makers, or major players, whoever controls market price movements must be the one providing liquidity, but those providing liquidity don't actively participate in buying and selling.

Market makers only provide liquidity to the market. Your buy and sell orders are fulfilled by market makers, but market makers don't actively participate in trading. This statement is a bit convoluted.

Market makers provide liquidity, post orders, and execute trades passively.

Retail traders consume liquidity, take orders, and execute trades actively.

For market makers to push prices up, they continuously post orders moving upward from below. Retail traders actively take these orders, and prices naturally rise.

Conversely, to push prices down, they withdraw liquidity and post orders moving downward from above. Prices naturally fall.