Google trends image. What exactly is fueling this rally? This tells me it's old money doing the same all over.
maybe there is a service called "baidu trends"?
Zero trade fees in china is fueling this pump/fake-rally.
Zero trade fees are what's called "free market." So I have no idea why you think that would distort the market.
It's pretty easy to fake volume when there are no financial constraints to doing so. Don't you think? A single whale can repeatedly buy and sell his own coins. (That's not to say the market won't roll over him or that this is what is happening)
Sure you can manipulate volume. How will that help in manipulating price?
You don't think manipulating volume can affect price action? Re price manipulation, that would depend on how much of the coins/fiat on the exchange is controlled by the whale. Is it impossible that one could drive up the inter-exchange rate this way? Or would he just be run over by arbitrage? I don't really know, I'm just brainstorming...