Here is a screenshot of an interesting post made on this forum in november 2017.
It claims the main source of price manipulation is not tether. But rather crypto exchanges which charge 0% commission fees on trades, allowing traders with multiple accounts to buy and sell to themselves in an effort to manipulate price, without incurring losses which would normally discourage this type of price manipulation.
There are two angles to this which could be of interest. The first is the media story about tether manipulating bitcoin's price could represent a distraction, a misinformation campaign designed to misinform people as to what the real sources of crypto market manipulation are.
The second angle is one where recent news stories about exchanges being hacked are not the main cause of bitcoin's price depreciating. But rather there could be some form of market manipulation whereby exchanges which charge 0% commissions on trades are being utilized in an effort to drag bitcoin's price down.
What could support the second claim is the lack of negative trading whenever a bank or credit card company is hacked. They do experience price downturns but if I am remembering right, it is nowhere near the 10% or so losses we see from bitcoin when an exchange is compromised.
I'm throwing this out there as it appears to be a neglected perspective and one which might be deserving of greater consideration.
Thoughts on this--please share.