...getting relentlessly raped...
Maybe a bit strong with the imagery there. I think it mostly has to do with people being unsure if developers are actually implementing the new algorithm that the announced, since they've been pretty much silent for one month+ now. Some people think they are, and those people are holding and/or buying, and some folks are losing faith and dumping.
Take a look at the 1 day VTC chart and just how unhealthy it looks :
https://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/cryptsy/vtcbtcThen come compare it to BlackCoin, DarkCoin, DogeCoin, and PeerCoin. See the difference? The four former got just as beat up as VTC did coming down off their peaks. But with active communities and active developers, they rallied when their long term down trends were finally broken. VTC broke it's down trend, and just continued flat. Now its falling again.
I hope the developers of VTC see this, and just how damaging how not saying something as simple as, "hey we are still here" ends up being. I doubt this was their intention, but the proof is now there and needs to be addressed for the future. Another coin where the devs went completely MIA and is now in a similar situation (just on a much shorter time scale) is CLOAK.
Lead developer just posted on reddit explaining why he hasn't posted here in a while:
I also think the recent silence from dev(s) has a bit to do with just trying to get away from the constant arguing that was taking place over changing coin emission, but that's just speculation.
and set it to 1-week chart and MACD as indicator, you will see that there was a crossover a few weeks ago, not that I'm really a believer in TA stuff, but it is a positive indicator.