RE: Why Cryptocurrencies are Down and What to Expect
Very good insight, but I disagree, if the government gets involved, even with fraud, in more cryptocurrency specific legislation, then I cant help but think that they will continue to expand and encroach on cryptocurrencies over time.
As for generally everything else, I agree with what you wrote, it's important for many cryptocurrencies to break away from reliance on base bitcoin markets. Ethereum has seen a lot of growth, and some exchanges offer Bitcoin Cash (BCH) as base markets, but our overall reliance on Bitcoin charts seem to have a major effect on all cryptocurrencies, which is only due to its popularity. If Bitcoin ever becomes second best to another cryptocurrency (in popularity), we'll see an interesting shift in how the market reacts to mainstream coins.
Last year when i saw the way and speed at which new ICO are springing up here and there, i zeroed my mind for government intervention. Let face it many of all this ICO are nothing but fraud in disguise and have left many people in tears. So the government coming to regulate the market is just their own way of protecting the people from fraud. We can not our cake and expect to have it, some bad ass people took advantage of the decentralised and cloak nature of cryptocurrency to wreck havoc on their fellow human being and don't expect the government that has been looking for way and excuse to come in to hear something like this and not act.
The government regulation is here to stay and just as you opined, more strigent regulatiin is on the way.