The price manipulation is not only exist in cryptocurrencies, even in stocks the company itself boost their stock values with fake expenses and profit making records to create hype and sell them for profits.
And this is a normal event that we able to see in the market. Whether we like it or not, that will remain on the market and just for us who will accept the way it is.
But on the other side, we suffer losses, not because of the said manipulation and whales, it gonna be our fault instead. If we are keen enough to listen and carefully analyze the market, we can still be at loss but not much. Buy low and sell high, if we can make this a habit, I don't think that we have to lose.