Recently, it's become a concern that crypto whales can manipulate the market. Does this apply to altcoins only, or can these crypto whales manipulate all coins, including those with a higher market cap?
Manipulation is very much possible. There are many techniques like pump and dump, layered orders etc. However, it's hard to manipulate a coin with huge market cap. So whales are choosing mainly memecoins and small shitcoins. Due to their small size, it's really easy to manipulate. Manipulation applies to every single coin available in the market. But higher market cap coins are usually difficult to manipulate.
A lot of whales are actively involved in creation of memecoins as well. Where you get tricked into seeing a Dog's cute face and these whales take home millions of dollars are pulling out their resources at once after creating the hype!