Certainly there are people with huge amounts of money or bitcoins that are in the markets. Do they control the markets? Certainly not. Do they manipulate the markets? Probably not. At least, they don't do it with big trades.

One reason is that market manipulation with big trades is not likely is that most big traders want to avoid affecting the price. When their trades affect the price, they immediately lose money. It is called "slippage".

Another reason is that it is extremely risky. There is no guarantee that the price will continue to rise after the manipulator buys or that the price will fall after the manipulator sells. There are plenty of examples of the opposite happening.

The Bitcoin market is controlled by whales as much as the weather is controlled by gods.

Many people have a hard time with the concept of decentralization or a lack of control. People used to believe that gods controlled nature because they couldn't believe that a natural event could happen without being instigated by some intelligence.