Sometimes most of the people who are holding the coins will manipulate the price but it won't stay much longer there. Soon the price will dump faster and makes the investors lose their money. Don't fall for pump and dump, it will make you lose money when there are manipulations.
So in other words do you mean to say that market forces surpass the effect that is caused by the people who manipulate the prices? Actually the ratio of the whales manipulating the price of crypto in market is far below the number of users and the consumer behavior in market and investors behavior in the crypto market can overcome the effect caused by the manipulation of prices if there had been more knowledge about the crypto among the users. Following a good strategy plan helps overcome abrupt fluctuation in the market.
I guess the "whales" have enough funds to shake the crypto exchange markets significantly. If the price will fall below the support levels, the stop-loss orders will be triggered and the price of crypro currency will fall even deeper. Then people will be very nervous and probably start to panic sell. So the "whales" controlling some mass media can ignite a strong volatility on the crypto exchange markets. My answer is yes, the price is almost fully manipulated by the large investors.