I believe hedge funds are like the flu. You think you would be better without them, you hate it when they act up, but in the end, it usually makes you stronger. Let me exemplify: the big picture is that any public company or coin(or cryptocoin) is gonna face market manipulation sooner or later. The good sign is that big money is shifting their efforts from trying to kill bitcoin and cryptos in general to trying to control them. Thats an implicit sign of acceptance into the mainstream. Hell, even some big players are considering releasing derivatives based on bitcoin. We should take this as a good sign: now is where the real strength of most cryptos get tested against the top players in the financial world. Also, the diminishing returns(some even call it oversold) of the traditional stock market is making the sharks seek more profitable waters.

What would happen? Well, for once we might see less bullish(ascending) markets and more bear(descending) and lateral(sideway) markets. But as you know, you CAN make money on bear and lateral markets. Its just slightly more difficult and takes more knowledge, but that just means that traders have to learn and professionalize more. It´s only short term investors in crypto that should be worried since that manipulation can make price action very jumpy in the short term but in the real long term(I´m talking about yearly moving averages) it makes little difference. ICOs are a whole different beast however. It IS true they can flip an ICO, killing a good project before its launch, or even kill an emerging coin just after its launch, but those are the risks on a public economy and we should view them as CHALLENGES. The biggest one is providing a safenet system for worthy ICOs in case they get manipulated. Exciting times people, now we´re solving problems from the real economic world, AKA how to control the sharks. I look forward to hearing comments/thoughts on that.

(No article source, just my thoughts)