That probably explains a lot about the Altcoin market and the mentality of investors, actually.
Everyone is looking for the hot new thing, a way to make a quick buck by mining a new coin and dumping it on the exchanges.
Almost none of the new projects actually have any long-term investment potential. Just a quick pump and dump, then move on to the next coin.

I would do something like 50% Bitcoin, 25% Monero, 15% Factom, 10% Ethereum.
(Putting most into Bitcoin and diversification among two or three other coins with strong potential over the next few years.)

Personally I don't invest a ton in brand new coins, but if you put a small amount in a new project there is the chance for a large return.
And also the chance to lose the money completely.

If Monero can get an official GUI wallet in the next month or two, 2017 could be a very big year.
I'm not sure if price would go back to 0.02 level we had in September, but at 10 to 15% permanent raise in price could be very possible in my opinion.

Dash would be my second pick, but I'm not nearly as familiar with Dash as I am XMR.

99% of all cloud mining sites are Ponzi schemes.
If you invested in one and you somehow have a chance to make a profit you should DEFINITELY get out while you can.
And be sure to thank god that you are one of the lucky few who got out before the scheme fell apart.

Pretty bold statement.
I'm pretty sure we need to resolve the debate over Segwit and blocksize before we break $800 and move towards $1000.
(Although maybe you have some inside information regarding the Chinese miners or some app that is about to be released.)

If he was actually guilty of trying to hire hitmen to kill people, he deserves to be in jail.
But personally I have a hard time believing the investigation against him. Several of the FBI agents stole huge amounts of Bitcoin during the investigation.
Do you really think someone who would steal money on the job is above making up charges against someone?
I've dealt with corrupt police in the past and they will make up charges, lie under oath and do anything to make themselves look good and hide the fact they are the ones committing crimes.

Very true.
I'm waiting for the day I wake up and see a thread "Amazon now accepts Bitcoin directly", check the exchange price, and see price of Bitcoin has almost doubled.

One popular app or big website becoming BTC integrated will have the possibility to make a huge difference in user base and drive the demand to new levels.

Price may be slightly higher, but how much volume?
If only one or two Bitcoin sell at this price, its not going to make any difference.
It's going to take more than a few BTC to change the price on other exchanges.

If I'm reading this right, they are using the recovery phone number associated with the email account to reset the email password.
This would mean they need to intercept the text that is coming to that phone number to perform the reset.

Intercepting a text message sent to a phone is not easy.
This would mean the attackers are either VERY sophisticated, like on a state actor level,
or have found some vulnerability that allows they to intercept data being sent by/ to phone carriers.

Blockchain and Bitcoin are totally separate of eachother.
Banks may take some interest in Bitcoin in the coming future if price is high enough and there are enough unique users,
but most are going to focus on Blockchain technology and how they can use it for their own purposes- banking ledgers/ transaction record storage.

The United States is already starting to look into this.
They will get whatever information they can from US based companies like Coinbase,
go after the larger buyers/ sellers and see how much money they can get.

Whether they keep this up for the long term probably depends on how much they get back and the laws related to Bitcoin that get passed over the next few years.

Personally I think anyone with enough money would be wise to invest in some of both.
Gold as a long-term safety net.
Bitcoin as a short-term investment that has the risk to gain or lose value, but the possibility of a larger return.

Dinofelis gives a perfect example of a real-world example of how easy blockchain analysis can be done with just a little information.
There are many reasons to have anonymity built into a coin, instead of being forced to rely on outside services like mixers.
If you aren't a fan or don't think you have a need for this feature, vote with your money and don't buy it.
The market will decide in the long run if a feature is necessary or not.

I've tried to reach the site a few times and keep getting a
"site can't be reached. The site took too long to respond" message.

What type of details do we need to provide to get the card?
Is this physically shipped meaning we have to provide a name and address?

Whoever did this knows what they are doing. There is zero chance that they were using their real IP address.
It will be very hard to track them. The only chance of finding them is attempting to follow transactions and look for large withdraws of Bitcoin.
But it will take a lot of work, looking at multiple accounts, exchanges and mixing services. Eventually if they try and cash out to a fiat currency, it may be possible to tie a transaction to a real identity.
But they arent stupid, and they will be living in some county like Russia where its hard to prosecute them from a foreign county anyways.
It will take a big mistake to get caught.

$20 is still way over-valued.
No new coin that has zero actual use is worth this much.
Price is still based on hype and manipulation.

Second, the more details that are revealed about the "trusted setup" the greater the possibility that there could have been a compromise.
I would never invest my money in this coin, personally.

Has there been any actual news about what happened or how the supposed hack occurred?
I heard some speculation that it came from a phone being hacked, but no proof to back the claim.

Obviously if someone was able to steal several hundred thousand dollars worth of coins they are not some amateur.
I would love some information about how they were able to do this.

As long as his project creates new users, I'm fine with whatever KimDotcom is doing.
File sharing is and always will be a huge part of the internet, and whatever service they create could seriously increase the demand for Bitcoin,
which would (hopefully) drive up the price.

Thanks, I appreciate the link to this.
I'll be creating a paper wallet this weekend. I'm moving my XMR from the exchanges/ online wallets and holding until I can buy my Bugatti. 

A few whales moving in could definitely drive up the price,
but not as much as a large userbase of smaller investors.
If some big service like Amazon or iTunes started accepting Bitcoin, it would generate millions of new users.
Even if they were only buying small amounts $20 to $50, it would create such a big demand that BTC being worth $2000 plus would be totally possible.
(I've been saying this for a long time, and hopefully one day it comes true, but not before I can buy a few more BTC.  )