I feel the general trend for any new thing is that the value shoots up extremely high at first, then drops disappointingly low, and then repeats that cycle (but less intense) until it becomes mostly stable.
Pretty much so, because a lot of them are panic-buyers and panic-sellers.
When bitcoin started getting mentioned in mass media in late 2013, a lot of people buy bitcoin when they completely have no idea what bitcoin is or how bitcoin works, thinking they can't miss the opportunity and driving the bitcoin price up very fast.
When gox was down and when there were rumors about the China bans, they again have no idea and sell their bitcoin very cheap, thinking it is the end of bitcoin.
