Newbie question: what are the elements/factors causing a market crash? Does it have anything to do with the whales who want to cause the crash so they can buy the shares of the smaller players for pennies and put themselves in an even stronger position?
Infinite supply = zero long term price.
While one specific cryptocurrency could be limited in supply, there is an unlimited number of cryptocurrencies that can exist. For example, Bitcoin is famously limited in supply. But I could create Bitcoin2, B1tcoin, Bitc0in, Bitco;n, etc. Thus, there are an unlimited supply of coins. The only possible long term price is thus zero.
Short term, whales can cause crypto prices to skyrocket (and they have done so). Just keep buying and holding and prices skyrocket. I could for example pay myself $1 million per hair on my head. That would cause my head to be worth a fortune. Then I can keep buying and pay myself $1 billion per hair. I'd be the richest person on the face of the planet (pun intended). Repeated buying and holding works very well short term. The problem comes when I go to sell. As soon as I try to sell even one of my hairs, I'll find out the true price. The true price is $0 and I go from being a theoretical trillionaire to impoverished overnight. Same thing with crypto. As soon as people want to sell the high prices (on paper) plunge. That is how all bubbles pop (tulip boom, dot com boom, crypto boom, etc). Only with robust selling can you know the true price.