But it isn't due to 'the free market' as Adam Smith intended it. This is whale ramping and chart formation engineering in a cornered market.
It's a zero-sum game. For you to win someone else has to loose.
It isn't and they don't. I sell BTC to you because you want BTC and I want to buy a car. You get the BTC you want. I get the car I want. We both win.
I was talking purely in the sense of trading against a counterparty. You're alluding to overcoming the 'double coincidence of wants'.