Well yeah, but by whom and for what reason?
Are all of these actors working for the same agenda?
Or are there a lot of interested parties trying to achieve different ends through these markets?
Clearly there are big whales capable of pumping and dumping markets, churning wealth out of new market-entrants... But I believe there is much more to these markets...
For one main reason, which is that the barriers to entry in these markets are remarkably low... Anybody can get in on these markets, and can do whatever they want... The regulations; of which there are very few, cannot account for the multitudes of ways people are using this technology today... And the challenge of even trying to regulate these markets is too great for any one entity to enact change, let alone steer the market in any particular direction... Everybody who's been in this space has been burned on some occasions, and succeeded in others...

Sooooooo.... Yeah.

Market is manipulated but so is everything