I haven't been in crypto long so take my opinion with a grain of salt but here's a theory I have personally. I think that big jump at the end of December has never been properly explained but for sure it 100% got attention and involvement by a large amount of people who prior didn't care or acknowledge crypto at all and it was at a mass that no one really could have anticipated.

I was one of those people but I feel sad that I came in at a time that a lot of people who have no interest in the technology and are just throwing in money then leaving quickly when things get hard because I am not one of those people. I love this whole community and the power that blockchain technology crypto and platforms like steemit have given to the little man so i'm here for the long run, to the moon or even if it crashes and burns I will remain interested.

I think what's happening now is potentially we are seeing the results of mass manipulation, scaring off all the weak handed newbies (which I think actually only makes up a small percentage of the marketcap) only for this all to pick back up again sometime soon or for it to all crash dramatically slowing down the hype and attention for a long time to come with a significantly long bear market.

What separates this from the incidents of the past regarding the price action of the market, is now there is a astronomically larger amount of money involved compared to then, far, far more and I truly believe far more manipulation at a higher more dramatic level for the good and bad alike for investors and businesses involved.

I do not think now is a good time to invest personally but I do think it is a great opportunity to observe, research and learn.

My gut feeling though is that even if 'the bubble pops' I see bitcoin not going below $5,000 in absolute worst case scenario and then we will see recovery over extended period of time.