There is most definitely market manipulation in crypto. You learn that in your first week of trading. It would only make sense that syndicates collude and assist each other in making money.

Exactly how far this goes/what size groups work together/if banks work with crypto whales or not/if banks are crypto whales or not/how much of the FUD spread by institutional money is purposefully to drop crypto prices/how co-ordinated the various attacks are is anyone's guess. Only the biggest of the crypto holders would know, and there is no way that they will tell, for obvious reasons.