It is usually the whales who are doing things to frustrate cryptocurrencies.
The logic is easy, they dump at higher price, spread FUD, and then buy at lower price and repeat.
Since they have tons of money and Bitcoin, it is possible to play the market especially a lower cap coins.
I guess the whales are the owners of Facebook and Google or the forum as well to have caused things frustrating crypto currencies. What people don't know is that little things matter. On the forum here, go to the currency exchange section, goods, or even the scam accusations thread and you will have an idea of ridiculous things people are doing to make cents but covered with bad intention to scam another person. Would you say they are the whales. The whales might be manipulating the price but they are playing by the rules.
If you then go outside the forum, the trust has fallen so bad that personally, any ICO or project that I see as a result of Google ad, I will have to triple check before even considering to put some money would you blame the whales for that too. Until there is a change in orientation that playing according to the rules would generate decent income, there would always be attacks from outside forces against crypto currencies because they will continue to have something to rely upon as reasons for their actions.
If the whales in bitcoin are actually the owners of these giant social media networks, then I could also be thinking they could have a hand in trying to push price down to acquire more bitcoin and target altcoins.
However, for people being defrauded, it has been in the habit of man to cheat the other person. Some people are born that way. They always circumvent the rules to make a living. So for every financial platform or means of making money, we should expect every class of human being.