I think the 'manipulators' are less frightening than some of you might think. It's probably safe to say that the spot market has become nothing more than a tool to boost their leveraged trades on platforms such as BitMex. Back in the days it was more like them accumulating plenty of coins, pump the market, then dump at others. Right now it's more like them solely resetting the spot market to levels within a safe range.
There doesn't seem to be much desire for them to tank the market to insanely lower levels for maximum profits (at least for now). If they are in for a wild ride, they'll just increase their leverage multipliers and reset the spot market to levels at which their gains are satisfying enough. As long there is enough respect for $5800 people should not worry.
Exchanges globally should put some effort into finding out who and what is contributing to these obvious price resets. As long as that doesn't happen, whales will continue to have free game.
it's just supply and demand. what makes you think "manipulators" have the ability to regularly move the spot market to their whims? markets trade in a range the vast majority of the time---that's true of all markets, not just bitcoin. these "resets" are happening in both directions because that's what happens in a range---there's no momentum in either direction to cause a breakout.
a large holder might iceberg large sells at resistance, but whether or not a top actually forms there is really just up to the market. plenty of whales have been slaughtered mercilessly by this market, especially in the older days. having a bunch of coins doesn't mean whales knows shit about trading. for some reason, people just assume these people are profitable and remain whales. they aren't and don't. they're not much different than the 80% of traders that lose money.