Hi there : )
Yes quite shocking news for sure but the story is not over yet.

Bitconnect could have gone on and on if not for the dramatic recent fall of the Bitcoin price, which is strong evidence that it was a ponzi/pyramid scheme. (But of course all financial markets are a form of a ponzi scheme) As long as there are new people adding to the scheme it can keep on going and growing. In this case they potentially had the world as their customer pool- this is what is so different today because of the internet means the world rather than just your own town. Bitconnect say they closed due to DDOS attacks and hate campaigns against them, but personally I think it wad the recent problems of South Korea with the Govt changing its stance on crytpo-currency. I have a feeling thousands of Koreans suddenly wanted to withdraw their money from Alt-coins and Bitcoin markets (which is why the price has fallen). Think about it, 80% of the time people left their money inside the Bitconnect platform so they cold earn more and more interest. As long as people did that then the odd person withdrawing their money was not a problem. This is exactly how a banks works anyway. However, when their comes a sudden rush to withdraw then the ponzi schemes begins to become unsustainable. A classic run of the bank scenario.

However, I dont believe this is the end of Bitconnect. They had already stated they were making plans o make a trading platform called "BitconnectX" - funny how all these trading platforms have a n "X" in them - PolonieX, BitfineX, BitreX.
A month or so ago I wrtoe a blog about how 2018 with be the year of the Trading Platform. We will start to see many pop up and they will also have their own coin that can be staked. For example . "KuCoin" is a new trading platform and it has its own coin. If you buy their coin "kucoin shares" and keep it in their trading platform, the you get interest on it. Smart move. This was copying the idea of Bitconnect but done in a better way because it serves a function. I think Bitconnect saw this and decided to copy them back.
I have always said that the way to succeed in crypto.currency is to look for practical uses for the coin. Many Altcoins will vanish because the have no use but those that do will win in the long run.
This is why Steemit will rise slowly but surely. Steem has a real use. There is now talk of Steem rising to $100 over the next two years - which I believe is a realistic figure. So keep tight hold of your account it will worth a fortune in the not so distant future.
Good to hear from you my good fellow : )