I think the price of bitcoin is not affected or manipulated because the price of bitcoin can only have the movement of buyers and sell that makes the price of bitcoin look like manipulation.
It is manipulated. The so-called whales, the people, who hold the greatest amount of Bitcoins, do it for their profits. They can easily affect the crypto market.
I'm not so sure about that. Everyone think that whales control the market but to my opinion their influence isn't that big and they can't manipulate price fully, only to certain extend.
People like conspiracy theories very much and of them is that Bitcoin price is fully controled and manipulated whic is an excuse for many for bad decisions and suffered losses.