It is actually possible to spot the manipulation taking place by watching volume characteristics on the live bitcoin ticker. These are sell orders this morning for instance. Those 2 large volume spikes at 8:45 and 9:15 AM EST.
After bitcoin went thru the 2 day beat down on the Th n Fri going into Memorial day the "manipulation" was rampant over the following two days. There were HUGE volume spikes at teh lows of each selloff as price swings were as much as $200. The volumes overall picked up quite a bit the past week. It leads me to believe that the big players were positioning for some sort of news announcement that would drive prices higher. It may just be that since everybody in teh world (besides me) who is doing technical analysis on bitcoin was advising that people wait for $1800 to add to positions so the big players stepped in before that level was reached...forcing new buyers to chase this rally before the major selloff begins. I did 2 spews outling volume characteristics on teh live bitcoin chart. One of them bought the low on the Memorial Day weekend Sat that resulted in the biggest % move higher that weekend