Bitcoin price mania being driven by market manipulation

”Bitcoin is heading towards a dot.com crash and is being driven by a “mania” and “market manipulation”, says Bitcoin Foundation executive director Llew Claasen.

“The fact that you have a 30% in value of Bitcoin in one day is dangerous,” said Claasen yesterday, commenting on the rise of the price in Bitcoin yesterday (7 December).

Speaking at Startup Grind event at Workshop 17 in Cape Town, he said there is strong evidence to suggest that some traders are using what he referred to as “tethers” — a digital representation of the US dollar — to push up the price of Bitcoin.

Tethers were created by a company affiliated with Bitfinex, to move into and out of market positions, he said.”

http://ventureburn.com/2017/12/bitcoin-market-manipulation/

If this is true, is it helping or hurting bitcoin?