The big pump and dump was not natural. It was planted and the result is that many people made huge profits while new investors lost their money.
It might have been planned to some extent, but what you can't plan is how the retail market reacts. We will never find out what percentage of last year's rally was manipulation and what percentage fomo. If the momentum is there, which it was, then the market can pump to any level as long as people are willing to hold and accumulate more -- if there are more constant buyers than sellers, the price will keep going up, it's that simple. Right now the exact opposite is happening, where the coins that people were holding are now being dumped on the market. I have heard some people say reverse bull run, and I actually like that term because that's exactly what it is.