I don't think so that's the reason for the current price dips as the whole market is in red and you can't say that's manipulation.In actual there were huge investments during the last year and people invested their surplus funds or say funds they need in crypto market and btc for profits but now they are withdrawing them but the conditions again hyped by panic sellers.The alt holders have also the same faith but institutions have nothing to do with it.There are equal investment by retail investors also in bitcoin if you look at the charts but yes big players have started to invest more from two to three years in bitcoin and they can invest big amounts easily compared to retail.Here is proof for the same :
Although the involvement of institutions have grown in Bitcoin market cap but still the major portion lies with the retail and they can't manipulate the market easily so for me there are other reasons for this and it will be over soon and prices will be going up.
OP, after reading your post I'm just left scratching my head and wondering....who are "they"? You've ascribed some very specific characteristics to "them" (like trigger happiness), but for the life of me I can't think of what big institutional investors are essentially gambling on bitcoin as you seemingly suggest.
The big institutions investors are only one or two who are playing big on bitcoin and we are familiar with them as always and these whom @OP is referring to have btc in their treasury reserves but can't think of some price manipulation by them.Here are some of the institutional investors i am aware about holds btc on their balance sheet :
Out of them only MicroStrategy is the one who is going on for investment at dips on regular basis and those who follow Saylor and btc news know this fact and they holds around 122k btc which is huge amount but if you check out in detail you would find out that they have bought them at average prices which are slightly more than the current rate.Other institutions have not invested for quite a time like Tesla or Sqaure and one time holding.
Saylor is true btc enthusiast and personally also holds more than 17k btc worth more than $600 million at this time also so see his company profits as well.The rest big institutional players he have in mind i don't know about it.
I have to laugh at everyone who's using the word "manipulation" or variations thereof. It's funny how that word vanishes from everyone's vocabulary when bitcoin is rocketing upward, and if anyone thinks there's manipulation going on in a bull market they're certainly not complaining about it.
The current price dump like situations may be weird for many and they might be having numerous reasons for this as this time China can't also be balmed for anything as no new FUD from them.The btc manipulation is not at all easy as you need billion dollar investment and liquidation position to move the prices and institutions investing in it should do the reverse which is price boost but that's not happening at all.They will slowly move upwards as little sign of improvement will mark the new surge in them.