I think that it was really strange that in January when BTC went down all big cryptocurrency exchanges closed registration for new members and they opened it only when the price was low. Then at spring when the downtrend was broken(7000$) there were many news that cryptocurrency now will go up! But whales just made big shorts at 10 000 $and all the news said that cryptocurrency won't go up for along time and market went down to current position.
What has happened since January 2018 are redistributing of bitcoin and others cryptocurrencies to the new investors because the old holders are selling off there position and new investors are buying them at cheap price. Manipulatiors are they in every face of business endeavour and I don't think they control the market hundred percent.