So I just got into cryptocurrency back in mid december.....3 days before it dropped....a lot. I told myself I knew it was going to happen but I just wanted to get in there, start buying, selling, and trading and creating a portfolio for myself. Now I wasn't one of the guys that heard bitcoin was skyrocketing and went on dumped my life savings into it or took out new credit cards and maxed them out into bitcoin. I did my research, I learned what bitcoin was, where it came from, what its doing, and where its going. I looked at all the different alt-coins and what they are doing. Which ones people thought were going to go up, and researched them on my own.
After days of research I got into it, and it crashed. I started looking at why it crashed, will it go back up, has it done this in the past. I couldn't get a real clear answer on any of those questions. Now After the 2nd big drop in crypto in the last 4weeks I knew something was happening. A lot of the news was going on that it was because Korea and China are going to start cracking down on it. Sure, it is a strong possibility, then I saw articles like these:
https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/finance-news/2018/01/17/bitcoin-crash-chinese-new-year/
And it clicked in, a good percentage of people are just in it for the short gain. Saying this, those people will sell their coins for the cash for the holidays, traveling, gifts etc. Just like before christmas, it took a hit, the chinese new year is coming up so it takes another hit.
As I'm writing this, prices are slowly returning upward, but looking over previous years, it wont be until mid-late february that the currencies level out and start to rise again.
These are just my thoughts on the matter, tell me yours, I am by no means a financial expert, I just do research and say what I feel is going to happen. If you feel something different, please let me know what you think will happen. We are all here for the same reason so why hold on to your thoughts and not spread and share your knowledge.