It wasn't tough this January.
The year has just started and a lot of things could happen from the next quarters. You could and couldn't expect a massive pump this year if mostly you are holding a lot of coins that are totally not on the top list.
But isn't it great that we're seeing a green percentage every time we look at CMC.
Agree, it is not tough for altcoins, imo. January did happened a lot, and market has been quite stagnant for a few weeks at a certain price then later on will pump. Other alts are gradually increasing like BCH, LTC, DASH, and so on. May be you are looking deep down below among the top list. Well, some of it are having a tough time increasing but, once again, if you would look on wider scale most of alts had a great run by January alone.
Although I can't spot out the reasons behind the drastic fall in altcoins. The fall was not for the altcoins only but also, Bitcoin fell while the altcoins where swimming in the ocean of dip. We all know that, many atimes the actions of the regulators also affect the altcoins, many scammers have created several altcoins to scam gullible potential investors.
Not every movement has a particular reason though. No need to point out something, sometimes it is a naturality of circumstances, people tend to buy out joining such movement when market increased that fuels extra push to positive movement of the market, and on the other side, when alts hit certain price people tend to sell it off to take away some profit before it became too late.