Agreed, manipulation always exists in every financial market, those with a lot of money will never ignore this easy way to make money. But the crypto market has more manipulation than any other market, because with a small cap, without much regulation...manipulation becomes easier than in other markets.
Whales in traditional markets don't ignore chances to make money by market manipulation in this cryptocurrency market because total market cap of this market is small together with less regulations are very attractive with market manipulators.
They would prefer to use their capital for manipulations in this market, that is more easily in traditional market, with less risk of regulations, legal problems than in traditional markets. In addition and most important, they can gain bigger profit with same capital used for manipulation in cryptocurrency market than in traditional ones.
But many people still naively assume that bitcoin is decentralized and cannot be manipulated, LOL. Yes, the bitcoin network cannot be manipulated, but the price is too easily manipulated.
Being decentralized in its network hashrate distribution is not related with coin distribution among holders and market manipulations. In addition, to manipulate successfully whales have to collect coins very slowly with time. They do their games slowly and silently enough to avoid noises in the market as well as on-chain indicators. When we realize it, it's too late and game is already in play.