I think all market movements are manipulations by whales. Bitcoin is relatively not yet mainstream and normal people trading few bitcoins cannot possible move the market in huge swings.
In the world of the crypto currency, there are so many people who have invested a huge amount of money and that they are like the major stakeholders of this crypto market. They have a key role in deciding the market value of any of the crypto coin and that other than this, the increase and decrease in the demand of the crypto currencies also makes a difference in the market value.