Altcoins equals scams. Most of them that are available now is a scam in a way. So that's not a big surprise, is it?
Fall off centralized exchanges? It is centralized, so those even does make sense. If you give the access to your assets to a centralized back from, something like that was meant to happen. So that's not a surprise either.
Even right now, SEC is going after Binance. They have blamed many altcoins for security, but only left Bitcoin out of the list. And why is that? Because Bitcoin is decentralized. This is all that mattes.
I agree with this statement that Bitcoin has carried over the whole crypto market on its shoulder to this point. Because the whole market runs on sentiments. If Bitcoin moves, then other coin moves too. Not because they have any connection to Bitcoin, but the sentiment attached to Bitcoin create the market movement. Bitcoin does play a great role in the crypto market.
I understand, and you're not alone. Many are cautious of altcoins. However, not all altcoins are scams. Ethereum and Ripple provide new technology and ideals to crypto. I agree about the sentiment-driven market; Bitcoin is everyone's big brother. Everyone moves when it does. But why? Is it sentiment or more?
Imagine if every coin had sentiments. Would the market be stable or chaotic? Bitcoin is powerful while being decentralized. I advise you to diversify, investigate, and never put all your eggs in one basket, even if its flashy and called Bitcoin.