Yes, certain people are interested in keeping the price around $100.
If the market really wasn't comfortable with that, the price wouldn't still be there. So you can't really say that it's "artificial." The people putting up the walls don't have unlimited powah.
Ya no doubt about this.
Incidentally, since the charter of the Federal Reserve has as its mechanism the manipulation of the value of the dollar vis-a-vis other currency, now that Bitcoin is in that category according to FinCEN, the fed could decide on any given day to blow over the market in any direction that suits them.
They could short it to nothing and wait for weak hands to sell and then grab it all back. They can print as much dollars as they like so you can't fight and win, all you can do is weather the storm.
There are whales, and there are leviathan.
Like the shao lin priest, they walk through walls.
Look for, they can not be seen, listen for, they cannot be heard.
It only took about US$30 billion to break down the gold bull market. Bitcoin is peanuts to that. Stay nimble.