I think crpytocurrency world has seen an interesting 2 months. Here is why from my point of view:

1) Ecosystem has changed dramatically. Regulations are slowly shaping all over the world. Which is good and bad same time.

2) BTC and other altcoins are now immune to bad or negative news. Which means also immune to good news as well. Look at Ripple price: even many good news are coming, it's price is not going up.

3) Lots of people's tie had been cut or given fear to be cut with global trading; such as China, India, Korea...This looks like 1980's era of countries closing their markets against foreign affect.

4) January crash was a real remarkable crash. Lot's lot's of people are now holding without trade because they bought at high. This reduces the daily volume(why do you think the btc transaction fee dropeed?). Now price depends on new buyers until prices recovered to December level; which might take some time.

5) Airdrops, ICO's became attraction point. But these projects need time and investment to mature. Some trash projects might raise big money just because attraction.

The last but not least...World finance system, currency system is started to change; soon our daily lives will start to change as well. This is a transition period. We are witnessing the history.

What is most stupid about the indian finance minister is that he says "we will ban cryptocurrencies but we will encourage blockchain in payment systems".
Is it a joke?

Yes, it's true. That's why bitcoin dropped suddenly last 1hr.
India is accounting 1 of ever 10 bitcoin transaction in the world. So you can imagine the impact.

News came today as Indian finance minister finally clarified that they will take actions to ban all cryptocurrencies.
https://qz.com/1148361/budget-2018-indias-government-wants-to-kill-bitcoin-but-it-loves-blockchain/
https://www.bloombergquint.com/global-economics/2018/02/01/india-to-curb-cryptocurrency-use-while-embracing-blockchain
http://www.keralanews247.com/budget-2018-arun-jaitley-speaks-about-bitcoin/

Personally I believe it's a mistake; but hey we are talking about government, which is naturally should be against mostly free and decentralized power of cryptocurrencies.

So, don't panic people. Hold your coins.

Edit 1: After all the news, maybe it's early to say India will ban it soon. Misinterpretation to say India will ban everything. But today's news showed their stance about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. We will follow further news...

Edit 2: For people who doesn't know how big India in cryptoworld: India is making 1 of every 10 bitcoin transactions anytime.

I'm not sure why bitcoin and some altcoins are still connected. Many exchange opened alternative sell option between ETH/Alts, or BCH/Alts. Yet BTC has still major influence.
I guess something is going on behind the doors. I especially looking forward for the tether audit results. If it fails, there maybe big crash first and then ETH & BCH might go moon rapidly.
Please check BTC graphs, it looks like controlled decrease, rather than sudden drop. Again...something fishy is going on.

It is true.
BTC is not a currency. It's an asset, like gold, copper, silver.

Some altcoins are more close to be currency, such as: BCH, Ripple, Monero etc.

Cryptocurrency ecosystem in 2018 is totally different than previous years.
One can compare 2017 vs. 2016; but cannot compare 2018 to 2017/2016/2015...
Why?
1) Big investors arrived.
2) Future buy/sell options come in effect.
3) Governments are digging into cryptoworld & talk about regulation.
4) Big price drops broke the trust among new investors.

Let me tell again, January drop cannot be compared to any other. People say every year price drops in January. Take a look to graphs. The price drop were never this long and sharp. There is definitely something going on, but so far I couldn't figure out.

I told many time in forum and I'm going to remind again.

Bitcoin: Gold like investment asset/tool
Bitcoin Cash: Payment tool/currency.

Please accept this reality. It doesn't decrease BTC's value or historical development. Embrace the sensible way.

Partially true.
Recently people found that gold and bitcoin is in reverse relation. One rise, while the other drops; and vice versa.
Everyone knows here that Btc is not very functional when you use it as money for transaction as it's current form.
That's why all professionals says: "BTC is an asset, like gold."
So, please look at gold price. BTC will also have similar fluctuations. But will not be $1M something. Just like no one use real gold anymore to do transaction or buy anything in real life.
An altcoin(s) with fast transfer, no transaction fee will be used as money in real life. BTC will be an asset, or investment tool; because its the first one in market. "Baseball card" or "collector item" comment is not reflecting reality.

Cheers

One cannot compare 2017 to 2018.
The whole ecosystem is different now. You have witnessed crazy growth in 2017. You may see the opposite in 2018.
Players are different now.

Korean and China governments were too late to put regulation before the crypto-world took off in 2017.
Don't panic on news regarding these countries to ban or trade. China nor Korea cannot ban cryptocurrency.

What Korea government wants:
1) Government first wants everyone to sell their cryptocurrencies.
2) Then they will issue licence to exchanges to legally operate in country.
3) Let people start to buy/sell again, but this time without anonymity, by registering individual's names, accounts. So government can track who earned how much money from trading.
4) Government will get tax from the gains.

Only in Korea, the number of people who trade cryptocurrency is enough to take down government by protests, in case of a permanent ban. That's why Korea president was so afraid and immediately had to declare that they don't ban cryptocurrency.
So, there will be no ban, but incoming regulations on trading & taxing.

Remember how Uber disrupted taxi industry in all countries?...And taxi drivers protested, pushed governments to take action against Uber...Years of war has been going between Uber and governments. But guess what, it had been already take off. Governments cannot prevent Uber or Uber-like apps that will serve the same function. Similar case for Airbnb...
Same for digital currency. No matter how big pressure comes from governments, as long as 2 person still makes transaction, digital currency will survive.
But we are not at that point. More and more companies, banks accept the digital currency era is coming and started to work about it. Only stupid ones are neglecting and pushing government to prevent it. Smart companies are accepting and trying to adapt for future.

I don't have any advice on which coin will rise or fall. But remember: it's here to stay; so don't panic. Fall and Rise is nature of trading.

I thought the whole purpose of cryptocurrency was to disrupt centralized monetary. You would expect this is kind of war between governments (which are actually banks & few rich individuals) and cyrptocurrency believers.
I think you all heard that big money owners are betting on bitcoin collapse. This the way they can collect more btc for less. Many exchange is now giving future options is also another reason for price fluctuation. FUD and bad news are still effective method for price reduction; so betting on price drop is safer than price increase.

I really watch you people with amaze. I'm actually totally shocked with your narrow sights.

Before Friday BTC total market cap was more than 300B USD; price dropped about 40%.
And you think it's all because of christmas? By regular people who needs a few hundreds of USD, to spend for gifts, parties?

What about the non christian countries? China, Japan, most of asia is holding huge amount of bitcoin and they don't have xmas celebration nor holiday...
Or let me ask you this: will btc drop 40% because of Chinese New year holiday? According to your theory it should drop even bigger...

The drop we witnessed was a f*ck of big guys who just joined with their multi billion usd funds, CBOE, CMO and other individual investors. Look at btc price after they joined: volatile as never been seen.

I don't understand one thing: For a while BCH is promoted as rival of Bitcoin; but all I see is when Bitcoin drops, BCH also drops. When I remember Roger Ver's announcements and all shit news...It just doesn't make sense. Theoretically when Bitcoin drops, BCH shall rise; but it's not happening.
Or is there any altcoin that keeps rising as bitcoin drops?

I started with a managable amount of money like 150usd to put mainstream coins BTC and ETH.
For a few weeks I did day trading; tried to understand trends, ecosystem. Then I understand the impact of news...
Slowly I increased the amount I have. Came up with my own strategies...

Now I have a Trezor wallet. Using different exchange sites; exploring altcoins...

Most of important: I believe in cryptocurrency future.

I really wished that, but not possible. Just in 1 month, doesn't seem feasible or healthy.
Also more ideas and different technologies are coming to light. Maybe ether is not ultimate answer for smart contracts anymore. For example recently IOTA is making big marketing screaming Fujitsu, Bosch, Microsoft etc...
Time and PR capabilities of developers will show us...

Why do you think we would have had to find other markets? "no more money to make in the crypto world that would have lost its icon." BTC and other currencies are here to survive. That's why it's called decentralized. I suggest you to read and think deeply about what's written on the whitepaper.
BTC and many altcoins will exist. Their prices will change, maybe their unit price will be very low but they will always survive. I can see this fact makes many people unhappy, but you must face it.

If you have a better argument, please post it.  

Hi!
This is my first ever post in bitcointalk forum. I was planning to just read the comments about cryptocurrency and try to understand behind of it...
But I saw comments on this subject and many others, I just can't hold my self anymore...

First of all BCH issue on last weekend:
I bought and sold it at right times and earned more than 30% of my capital. In conventional finance world, if you earn 30% over weekend, it's unbelievable crazy. Similar things happens in stock exchanges, especially new company IPOs. But no one says "it's a trap to sell abc" or what so ever. So, please stop saying BCH is shit, or it's trap etc.
In finance world there are always manipulators, big banks, big players who can manipulate and earn more. In cryptocurrency world, the more it gets famous and reknown, the more manipulators will join. At some point, the thing you called "shit, trap" might give biggest profit to investors.

Many people here is promoting Btc with baseless hype, or let say simply like "apple fanboys"; saying "Btc is king and will be king bla bla". But why? Except a few person, there is not much solid explanation...
In finance world "money" always looks for safe place. This is golden rule. No matter how much you love an asset, if money feels it's not safe, it will leave.
Also another rule is profit maximizing. BTC so far did a good job about this; but we all saw how volatile was BTC, when a limited power backed BCH for short time.
So, please keep in mind: if a few big banks, fund management companies, a few rich guys comes together and decides to take down BTC, believe me they can. At some point what you call "weak hands" could be you, because you also want to keep your money safe; or at least maximize your profit short or long term.

What I suggest is, stop giving empty hype to people. Instead, pinpont BTC problems (scaling, block size?) and gather a community power to push developers to come with solutions. Otherwise in future even big banks, rich guys won't be necessary for BTC to be replaced.

Regards