Certainly seems like as good an explanation as any; the fundamentals of cryptos and blockchain technology didn't suddenly change overnight, so some other influence would have to be at play. I noticed BTC bounced hard when it briefly hit $9500, so maybe that was some limit among institutional investors?

Seems to me like this would be a singularly dumb time to bail ib panic selling, and possibly a good time to pick up things at a "sale price" if you happen to have any cash sitting on the sidelines.

The only question that remains somewhat open in my mind is how long it will be before the (dumb?) money stops treating "all cryptos" like BTC. Surely we must soon reach a point where BTC starts doing it's own thing without every alt coin following like "sheep."