Bitcoin is still very niche with less than 100 thousand serious hodlers. It's not manipulated. It's just not understood. This is 99.9% more likely than a conspiracy of someone or. A small group manipulating it. They would have to have incredible holdings and secrecy with high trade volume. Those things together are very very hard to achieve with Bitcoin.
Discussion
What does 99.9% more likely mean?
It means it's the least likely reason but you believe it because of personal bias. Occam's razor completely disregarded around these circles.