Bitcoin itself is currently undergoing something not completely dissimilar to a pump-and-dump. Because of the difficulty of transacting USD for cryptocurrency purposes, a pegged currency called “Tethers”, specifically USDT, is being used as a substitute. It's supposed to be backed 1:1 by USD reserves, but it's clear at this point that the amount of USD reserves do not match the number of USDT in circulation and they're just printing money to buy BTC. The markets using real USD are then matching the USDT price and this allows the printers to cash out. Once regulators strike, many investors will realise they have a lot of useless paper money (USDT) and suddenly much less valuable BTC.
Or so many allege, at least: https://amycastor.com/2020/11/21/are-pixie-fairies-behind-bi...