I take it people are turning off their rigs? It seems the hashrate across most coins is decreasing... or are they mining some new coin? It appears like the slight increase in bitcoins value didn't really affect the altcoins...
The altcoins seem to be behaving lately as if they're tied to a value in fiat rather than BTC. As far as mining profitability, though, LTC seems to be getting hammered by ASICs and it's dragging down altcoin profitability across the board. I'm assuming it's ASIC owners who care little about the future of LTC and just want to immediately dump on an exchange and collect their earnings.
On the subject of anonymous transactions, I support this feature being added to Execoin 100%. Throughout history, many well-written proclamations have been made to explain why you need privacy, even if you have nothing to hide. It would be shortsighted to dismiss this feature over fears that it would be utilized for nefarious purposes.