[-57k USD] crypto market is lowkey rigged

I'm not usually the type to jump straight to conspiracy theories, but the price action has been extremely suspicious.

Multiple times, I've entered a position and the market has moved exactly as I expected shortly afterward. Yet right before the move in my favor, there's often a sudden spike in the opposite direction that would be enough to stop me and likely many other retail traders and get us out of the trade.

A developer friend once told me he had an opportunity to work for a firm in the Netherlands that specialized in exploiting retail traders' positions and liquidity. Whether that's what's happening here, I can't say for certain.

Maybe it's coincidence, maybe it's market makers hunting liquidity, or maybe something else is going on. Either way, I'd be interested to hear whether others have experienced the same thing