There are whales, certainly. I don't think they're actively trying to manipulate the market tho. The market cap is high enough that it takes a *lot* of bitcoin to move it. And if the price of bitcoin goes up, it's going to take more fiat to keep moving it.
There has always been speculation about these anonymous whales, but I never see any hard proof, just theories. If anyone has any good evidence that whales are manipulating the market for whatever reason I'd like to see it.