What if the general population sees this crash and loses interest.
if the "general population" is only interested in bitcoin and the blockchain technology to make profit then it is best if they lose interest sooner than later. and in fact that is why most of the altcoins crash and never come back to life because people are only interested in them only for making money and when their pump-ability reaches its end they give them up.
but bitcoin is more than just money making which is why it has always recovered from all of its crashes. and the more it is used as a currency the easier that recovery is going to be because that utility is what keeps bitcoin strong.
What is a cryptocurrency truly worth?
cryptocurrency is supposed to be a decentralized currency which is censorship resistance and is easy to use as a currency. the closest we get to this definition the higher the value will be. so as a side effect of this, prices will be rising and falling like this in short term but rising in long term. because in short term the wanting-more-money people are in and in long term the rest who understand the power of decentralized money.