Yes, it is brutal and protracted winter for altcoins,but it is not unexpected. Almost from beginning,it is quite obvious that most of the coins have highly centralized wealth distribution. Few major players in quite coordination pull the strings for almost every coin.The lower market cap the easier to manipulate coin value.  When they decide to push coin down there is no positive news or good coin developpment which can prevent it. And the contrary, when they decide to pump coin,every bad news will be put aside or deliberately diminshed through paying people to write positive articles and bots to spread hype on forums and media.

They are playing on emotions of traders(greed when pumping and desperation when dumping),making such bad market conditions that most of people lose its nerves and act recklessly.For every crypto trader it is essential to control his/her emotions if he/she wants to succeed.

One tip - the colder and longer winter , the hotter summer will be after.