Are altcoins like stellar and xrp harming the bitcoin price by their manipulated pumps ?
Not that really. Before, you may imagine about icos and how did it affect bitcoin's price. We saw a lot of projects turned into bitcoin and how huge money was going in and out from those projects. But this time, we're looking at the natural growth of bitcoin, and the halving that just happened last May is in effect already.
Too many reasons why we're seeing the price increase this time. PayPal's news and other positive news that portrays bitcoin adoption. And if you think that altcoins are affecting bitcoin's price negatively, I don't think that we're still in the same phase of bitcoin that's being affected by altcoins movement, not this time anymore.