It seems that it's caused by large-scale buyers and buying at prices that do not match the prices that exist on the market, maybe that's affecting the price to look like manipulated. That's in my opinion.
Those big buyers or players in the market that are buying with a huge volume of capital are called whales. The whales in the market are the one who are manipulating the market and putting abnormality growth or movement in the market which is an activity that they do for their own selves because they want to create a faster profit.