When we say manipulated we need to ask “in comparison to what?”
All markets are manipulated, and cryptos are no exception, look at Litecoin and Quarkcoin recently with Max Keiser pump and the giant orders appearing and disappearing on the BTCe order book. The smaller a market is the easier it is for someone to paint pictures on the graph and pressure people in to performing actions.
Though keep in mind with things like Gold or UK Housing (v manipulated atm) it’s less risky for the control freaks because they are smaller group of people manipulating a centralised ledger.
An exchange is able to manipulate the price of a crypto because it has a centralised ledger of its own, it can see what’s in everybody’s account and all the inbound funds.
But that doesn’t mean that cryptos cannot exist, the way to beat these kinds of short term frauds is to take a long term view. They will always do the minimum amount of effort for the maximum return, ultimately this fails against the commitment and hard work of the devoted who keep their eyes fixed on a future. In fact many times frauds will lose more than they make because ultimately they are victims of a gambling addiction and can thus become addicted to their losses.
Also it’s a moot point because we cannot control the markets and some might argue it would be unethical for us to do so.
