A few years ago (on a crypto-currency trading platform) I had a few thousand dollars of currency.

On the platform i was using, you can see every single trade in 'real time'.

The crypto market crashed, and so I started selling my curency.

BUT,   as the price was falling and falling,, I had the idea to start buying small amounts of coins at a price slightly ABOVE the market value.  so it gave the impression on the 'real time' screen that the prices were maybe going UP again.

I did many many many small trades in a row (for several minutes)   - each trade just 1 or 2 dollars.

I noticed that the price started going back up again.

I assume that the few hundred (or few thousand) people on my particular platform saw the currency was selling higher and higher prices, so they all started jumping in on the bandwagon.

then I pushed the currency up to a good enough price, and then was able to sell the rest of my currency at a much better value.   

then I watched and the price fell again (after I sold out).

So, basically... did I (on a small scale) manage to push up and manipulate the currency price ?

is that how the big boys do it with their millions of pounds ?  did I stumble on some sort of illegal trading method ?PS:  I want to know..  It seemed to do the trick for me (on the small trading platform that I was using).   But, how would this work on a much larger trading platform ?