Bitcoin is going back to 1k imho. To much bad stuff is going on. This is not panic selling this is realizing a lot of these crypto coins don't have value anymore. This is regulation keeping people from buying cryptos. And people are now learning the coins by themselves don't really have value only the ecosystem does. Bitcoin block chain is to slow its not working the way it should. Mike Hearn was right. Tether also a big problem now. People found out they manipulated up the price of bitcoin so when people see money is printed out of thin air and manipulation going on thats not different then investing in a fiat currency or the stock market. When people feel scammed it is natural to move out of a investment I think a lot of these coins are going to tank not just bitcoin. Ripple token lost its value because banks and businesses said they are going to use fiat on its ecosystem and have no interest in the xrp token. Same for stellar. Factom I believe is doing the same thing they are allowing governments, businesses etc use its ecosystem with fiat. So these crypto businesses are by passing using its crypto to pull in big businesses so it can get more volume and they don't care if its in crypto or fiat. So i think people feel like whats the point of investing in them these businesses have no interest in protecting the price of the crypto coins for investors. Its why they say non profit. Until bitcoin can make transactions go a lot faster at a cheaper price I see the coin falling. But if they can fix that issue that would be the one way I see it bounce back up to 20k. So there is always a chance it can bounce back, but the technology has to improve.
I kind of agree with you that long-term, Bitcoin really does need to improve its fundamentals in order to become a legitimate player in the global economy. But ever since its inception years ago, it's been a speculative instrument with a low barrier of entry more than anything else. A 15 year old kid can go online and buy a $20 stake with money from mowing lawns, and then tell his friends how he made an easy $100 by "day trading". It's much easier than starting an IRA account, and the returns are potentially MUCH faster. That's the appeal, IMO. I don't really see that going away for awhile. Let's face it, 99% of the people involved with crypto currency couldn't care less about the block chain speed, etc. They just want to make money fast! I think we will be back to another ATH in another year or two.