Nope, they sure wouldn't do it for that.
Long-term manipulation/trading of small volume coins can be done by buying a bunch of alts, in the face of a coming year long downtrend/lateral for BTC where there's very little profit to be had.
They'd lose their shirt if they did what you're saying, because the liquidity would dry up in an instant.
+1
Alt coin markets have very little money in them compared to bitcoin. Very few of them even have market caps above $1 million.
And bitcoin itself is not even too far above the one billion market cap.. What's your point? I don't get it yet.
Pretty sure the implication that a three order of magnitude difference in a variable that's absolutely misleading and based mostly off scant volume, that the possibility of making a profit in the way OP displays is inane.
To lose ten dollars, pump an altcoin. To make 50 cents, hold bitcoin on comparison.