Manipulators are everywhere. They are in the stock market, they are in the hedge funds, they are in the venture capital companies, almost everywhere in the financial system. Probably they are big in numbers in the crypto market because there is no regulator, so we often fall pray to their tactics! But that's how it is and we should be accepting it the way it is. There's no way we can cut them from the system. But that doesn't make the fundamentals of bitcoin, flawed! Watch what you are saying!
Market manipulation can't be stopped only by regulations.
The market should be mature enough to become free. If we got a huge daily trading volume then it will require more money to make pumps and dumps. Now many altcoins can be pumped /dumped just by a single person trying to sell his altcoin savings.
Right. 10 years is pretty short for any market to mature so we're likely still infancy. At this point though you can't avoid people treating it as a stock since the market's volatility makes it act like one. Btc and every other altcoins in the market. Though eventually i think we can come to a time where we can see bitcoin closer to being transactional option that a stock share.