I agree most if not all alt markets are highly manipulated, the same can be said about any market with low capitalization, however there has to be a fundamental basis for value otherwise there is no purpose in trading.
Until there is REAL ADOPTION, all trading will be highly speculative as it is now, where people are essentially buying crypto in the hopes that they will pick "the right one" and see a massive price increase. It's a bit like penny stocks. By real adoption, I mean the status quo changing to the point where actual normal people (not just miners and investors) are going out of their way to acquire crypto and commonly using it for transactions.
I agree, the larger the market capitalization, the harder it becomes to manipulate but to say the alt-prices price are 100% due to manipulation is simply not correct. In regards to the alt coin market scarcity and innovation play a fundamental aspect of the value, for the same reason one 42 coin is valued at 140 BTC and one Doge is valued at 100 sat.
well, who can afford 1 42 coin and will use it and who can afford 1 dogecoin and will use it? Nobody the former, and everybody the latter.
I think utility and usage has more weight than market cap or distribution rate. The logic behind the idea that scarcity automatically increases value and therefore usage is sort of short sighted. Especially in light of what are essentially fiat currencies without any government "fiat" backing them up.
There is no real "inherent" value to any currency, only general social agreement to use it so I think the entire economic perspective being presented by that type of argument is outdated imho
