That's what I'm wondering, people keep saying that bitcoin adoption is increasing or people are actively accumulating because the halving is approaching, but bitcoin and the market still don't have any positive movement. This shows that people are just saying what they are thinking with no proof for that or as you say, the market is being pure manipulation.
To quote what you said, "accumulating and no positive price movement”, means you don't understand what is the accumulation phase of the market if you are expecting rapid movement to start happening. In fact, the accumulation phase is the most boring time of the market when nothing much used to happen and when most people get tired and even begin to lose hope in Bitcoin.
The market is now gathering momentum and don't expect anything $1k-$2k price movement a day until when it's dam fucken time.
I believe that there is a good chance we could see it change any situation all the time, because if you could end up holding as long as possible then you will do fine. This is basically what I did so far, I have HUGE debt right now, way more than I could have ever paid in my life, way way way too much debt, I didn't pay my old debt and made even more debt, I decided not to pay it, and just pay minimum I could pay and keep not spending my money and just use credit card and grow my debt. That sounds like terrible thing isn't it?
Well, during the same time I invested, and I made profit, so right now not only I have enough to pay my debt back, but also have double what I owe, so I am in huge profit thanks to this method.