A 5x increase from here would put us near 1k, but I wouldn't expect that without some serious FOMO.

I doubt XMR will spend any time in the $200 range. The price will creep toward $150 before exploding all the way to $300, and then peak near $425 by mid December.

The issue isn't with MyMonero itself. The service never sees your private key and thus can't steal your coins. The danger is if you misspell the domain you might end up on a scam site that looks like the real one, only it steals your key and empties your wallet. Also, if you log into MyMonero from a malware infected computer your private key could be logged as well.

Basically, typing your private key onto an internet-connected machine will always carry risks.

I solo mine, like a boss.

It's a very rough assumption based on past market runs. Monero went from about $3 to $15 last year (5x increase), from about $12 (March 10th) to a high of $60 earlier this year (5x increase), then from $30 on July 16th to $150 (5x increase). So if our last strong support was at $85 then I'm predicting our next 5x run will bring us to $425, which should happen no later than December 15th (45 day interval).

EDIT: Also, the Nov. 1st 2016 run from $4 to $18.5 almost fits the pattern.

I doubt the amount because guys like TheKoziTwo were involved earlier than Risto. He created the first Monero exchange and was in a much better position to acquire a such a large amount, but IIRC he indicated he had less than half of that. Buying 700k coins during that time on the open market doesn't seem possible without a massive price run (which never really happened. USD high post Mintpal pump was like $3). And I doubt he was making any significant OTC purchases either. The community wasn't that big at the time.

EDIT: back to speculation. If XMR breaks $110 this week we will be on target to $425 by December.

Regarding Risto's claim: I have a hard time believing such a claim, because his activity coincided with a very low volume period in Monero's history. Acquiring that many coins would have caused a much greater price (and risk) increase, which I imagine would defeat the purpose of owning such an amount in the first place.

He's probably exaggerating his holdings by at least a factor of 2.

@smooth: I'm not questioning the possibility as much as I'm questioning the reasoning/motive during that time. There wasn't exactly a huge amount of confidence during the 25 cent era. And even if a moderately high net worth individual wanted to acquire 700k XMR during that time, he would not have gotten them all at 25 cents. I assume he would've cleared the order book before even getting his first 100k coins.

I've never heard of anyone having 700k. I'd guess the largest (individual) holder has under 500k XMR. Probably even less.

224 MH/s

I don't mind a debate. I was only trying to avoid sparking further off-topic discussion from my already off-topic post.

Even if proof of stake could work, I'd still question the incentives of anyone who insists on using it in their project. It's essentially a system where the rich become richer with zero risk or opportunity cost. Sounds productive. What a coincidence all the scams in the space are falling all over themselves to support it.

As far as the technical challenges with proof of stake, these papers are pretty enlightening:
https://download.wpsoftware.net/bitcoin/pos.pdf
http://bitfury.com/content/5-white-papers-research/pos-vs-pow-1.0.2.pdf

When evaluating new cryptocurrencies, always ask yourself:

Is it fairly distributed?
There should be no ICO, no insta-mine or pre-mine, no "allocated block rewards", and no proof-of-stake, ever. And let's not argue why PoS is a security nightmare. Those who support it usually have a lot to gain.

Any project that passes the above test is worth looking at, because the developer's incentives are usually more aligned with those of the users. Projects that fail the above test are not worth looking at, because the creators directly benefit from the deception of the users. Run away.

More useful follow-up questions to ask yourself:

Is development community funded via donations/volunteers, or paid for by organizations or high-profile individuals?
If it's not a grassroots/community project, then whoever is running it is almost certainly trying to make money. Run away.

Are the decision makers an exclusive group separate from the rest of the community, that dictate the direction of the project?
This is a red flag that the people in charge treat the project like a company (a profit machine), with you being the consumer (or sucker). Run away.

Questions to ask when evaluating privacy/anonymity claims:

Are private transactions optional?
If so, any privacy claims are bullshit. No excuses or arguments. Just run away.

Are addresses or balances visible on the blockchain?
If so, there's no actual privacy. Run away.

Is privacy secured via some new Whizbang PrivacySystem^TM that you've never heard of?
Basically, if there isn't a whitepaper with actual math in it, run away.

-----

EDIT: The questions above are ordered by importance. There's no point assessing a coin's privacy if it isn't even fairly distributed.

Assuming we've already seen the bottom, then I'd say our next USD high will be around $425. This is a number I'm pulling out of my ass, of course, looking at past performance.

The feeling that I've overbought while the price bottoms tells me I'm doing it right.

Balance your portfolio on the upward corrections.

I don't want anything to do with other big alts because I actually have a conscience and don't want to support ponzi scams. I'm perfectly happy with my Monero gains so far.

The biggest indicator of future price growth is the constantly increasing number of contributors, development, and ongoing research. Pay attention to the other projects in the space that tend to expand vertically but not horizontally. The amount of simultaneous developments in Monero is proof that it isn't going away any time soon, and is rapidly outpacing any would-be competitor.

As aminorex astutely pointed out, the market won't turn until the bulls capitulate. In the past, the appearance of trolls and FUD was a good indicator of the tides changing, but such market patterns tend to collapse as soon as they're recognized. KeyJockey's post indicates a level of short-term uncertainty that leads me to believe we're about to see the next move up. But then again, I thought that was going to happen three weeks ago and I was wrong.

What does Bitcoin's USD price have to do with XMR's BTC price? Are you saying you can't imagine XMR having that high of a USD value?

There was a time when people thought $20/xmr was pie in the sky. $1000 is not so far off.

I think we'll see movement way before December 18th. My prediction was probably incorrect, but I still have a few days left!

Yes sir. Fair warning though: I'm wrong pretty much always.