The main difference is the institutional investors. They didn’t exist back in 2013 and 2017. They arrived after 2020 as far as I know and they have all the tools to manipulate the prices. In other words, bitcoin (and crypto) got “institutionalized”.
Now they can play leverage games forever the same way they do it with gold and silver. It doesn’t matter if they run out of crypto. It doesn’t matter if their cold wallets are empty. They can issue USDT and pay off their debts, the same way COMEX does.
Big amen, that access for institutional investors changed the market drastically.
I think you can add 2018 when Fidelity Investments launched Fidelity Digital Assets. That was the time when the first really big players entered the market and could play their leverage games, but it was still not as bad as you pointed out, 2020 onwards.
For many of them it doesn't matter whether the price is $120k or $70k as that is what manipulation is about, start a leveraged position and push the market in your favour.
But with all of this is there is one problem I think, and that is the diminishing block reward. The speculators/manipulators may not care too much about the price, but it can't stay at a too low level or otherwise miners would get into trouble and along with them bitcoin security. Could that be a critical aspect they will have in mind while playing their games?
Ah and before we forget, it is not only money that can now manipulate the bitcoin price, it's politics too. Once Trump's family has loaded their bags, I think some good news will be coming...