Considering that Vertcoin's exchange rate has fallen to 50% in the last 2 weeks (there's nothing there to raise the rate, only slow it from falling), and Auroracoin is about to experience massive inflation from the airdrop, I'd say we have a good chance at surviving a lot longer and with a lot better rate.

I imagine that if BTC had gone up since Feb. 8th (as opposed to crashing) Vertcoin would have seen a much worse exchange rate drop too, since there's still a lot of demand to "shelter" holdings in Altcoins until BTC comes back up.

Auroracoin is an interesting case though, and it can't be judged on its speculative rate alone. I think it's an important (if a little misguided) step toward cryptocurrency adoption, but AIRcoin is playing a very different game in aiming for investment viability rather than ubiquitous usage.