“ Why do cryptocurrencies attract this type of manipulation? A lack of regulation.”

The opposite point would be equally valid: the reason cryptocurrencies attract this type of manipulation is because of the public’s expectation of regulation. Small investors especially have been lulled into the expectation that Mama in Washington will look after them, so they don’t need to do the kind of due diligence that would be commonplace in a marketplace where no government bureaucrats inspected paperwork and stamped their imprimaturs.

Without taxpayer-funded bureaucrats doing this work, companies in the voluntary sector would surely step into the breach, providing the same or better information to those who had the sense to pay for it.