It is important to note that these tactics are illegal in the regulated stock market exchanges. As the cryptocurrency world faces more regulations as time goes on, It is safe to say that the whales will eventually lose their power to manipulate the market so readily and easily.
It's not illegal though market manipulation with short selling as well as going long and taking advantage of both buy and sell orders with their money is something within the boundaries of what an investor can do that is why the SEC has setup things such as trading halt and market halts to minimize the damage of what FUD and FOMO can do to the market. What is illegal though is insider trading as well as market manipulation by spreading false information similar to a pump and dump group, whales taking advantage of the market with only their money is something that is out of their hands considering that their capital alone has enough to influence the market they are on.