...getting relentlessly raped...
Maybe a bit strong with the imagery there. I think it mostly has to do with people being unsure if developers are actually implementing the new algorithm that the announced, since they've been pretty much silent for one month+ now. Some people think they are, and those people are holding and/or buying, and some folks are losing faith and dumping.
Take a look at the 1 day VTC chart and just how unhealthy it looks :
https://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/cryptsy/vtcbtcThen come compare it to BlackCoin, DarkCoin, DogeCoin, and PeerCoin. See the difference? The four former got just as beat up as VTC did coming down off their peaks. But with active communities and active developers, they rallied when their long term down trends were finally broken. VTC broke it's down trend, and just continued flat. Now its falling again.
I hope the developers of VTC see this, and just how damaging how not saying something as simple as, "hey we are still here" ends up being. I doubt this was their intention, but the proof is now there and needs to be addressed for the future. Another coin where the devs went completely MIA and is now in a similar situation (just on a much shorter time scale) is CLOAK. Though that one is more likely a flat out scam where as VTC is not, the end result is still the same due to missing devs. If VTC has active developers constantly updating their new algo status, I am almost certain it would have some kind of rally instead of flat-lining.