There is definitely some manipulation going on with the market, but I think in the long run these manipulations mean little on the overall outlook of bitcoin.

If you look at the long term growth of bitcoin, it has followed a consistent baseline exponential growth. There have been periods where hype takes it far above this curve, but it always comes back down to rest at this baseline where it continues healthy growth. The great thing about bitcoin is that if the people believe in it, then it will work. No one government can decide to kill it. It would take a worldwide collaboration of governments to get people to drop bitcoin.

Just ignore the pumps and dumps and hodl. All is well.