Nobody really believes this could happen. Don't get me wrong it is a good thing and hopefully we will reach 50k, and even 100k or 500k. I would love it because I have some bitcoins, probably would be my retirement if we reach 500k to be fair.
However, this doesn't mean that it will happen, just because we want it to reach there doesn't mean we think it will. Since, we do not believe it, then the price usually reaches to a point where it is not going to be fairly there. This is why I hope that the best thing we could do right now, would be making sure that everything is alright and we are not worried about if it will go up or not, just strap on and wait.
I am not worried if bitcoin price will increase above $50k again, but it will happen, only 2 or 3 years remain for this to happen. What I think about is that people are also using bitcoin halving to fomo and people will buy more bitcoin during that time and the price will increase. I do not know if bitcoin can reach $500k, but getting to $50k again is possible and it will happen. We can all guess and speculate about bitcoin price but bitcoin price speculation is more accurate if it is in long term.
If there is manipulation, then it is an Yes. Because, the market will be pushed and the same drops down. For now such acts aren't happening anymore with the market, because the market is getting to be more mature as the traditional stocks market. $50k is around $30k from the current price. With the potential of bitcoin, rallying can happen anytime. But, here it needs time for some reason.
Just like you later said, can bitcoin market be manipulated? I also doubt that, it can not be manipulated like altcoins market which have low marketcap while some altcoins whales have high amount of the respective altcoins which can make market manipulation easy, but unlike bitcoin, even after the whole present bear market, bitcoin marketcap is still over $400 billion.
I agree with you, it will be difficult for the price to reach $50,000 in this month of July because there is no improvement of pumping yet in the crypto market.
$50000, in this month of July, we all know that is not possible, even in this year, I do not think that will be possible.