Ver & Co could indeed play a major role, but don't rule out the hidden agendas of the larger mining farms that have absolutely no moral problems with forcing people to pay a higher fee by choking the network with rubbish transactions - especially if it is a combined effort. Rubbish transactions will likely not confirm, and thus drop with the result that the entity behind the spam attack doesn't lose anything. In that regard, to a certain extent it's free to do for them, with a major impact on the network as result.

Do you realize that in order to gain profits, that you are needing to sell or spend your coins? Probably not. It's basically the same as when the price goes down. You only lose when you sell or spend your coins. Increased or decreased value only matters if you are obsessed with fiat. I put more value in Bitcoin itself than in the fiat value that it represents in current times. That's exactly why I don't cash out any of my coins to fiat. I just trade my way up to increase my Bitcoin holdings.

Better late than never, but if you look at the whole situation, then it's purely the fault of all pools that have not been willing to let Segwit activate. Every pool that signals BU support is from my point of view against Bitcoin as it is right now. Segwit isn't a long term solution, or a solution at all, but it offers Bitcoin a good enough bump forwards in order to cope with the increased demand for block space. All other proposals are pure rubbish and infested with greed lusted individuals looking to take over Bitcoin as we know it. As we speak; Ripple's market cap sits at +$5.5 billion. It's not only Ether that is catching up in terms of market cap.

People should take care of their own. As mentioned above, there is absolutely no need to click on links or to download something from whatever source just because you think you need it. If you get your PC locked, and are forced to pay whatever ransom amount, then it's purely YOUR fault. Nothing can change that - just don't dare to blame Bitcoin for that. I am extremely paranoid when it comes to links or downloads. I never click on links - if someone wants to show me an article for example, I manually browse to the site (if it is a legit news site and not a brand new one), and look for the article myself. I don't download anything from the internet. If I need software but don't want to pay for it, I use open source alternatives that are freely available. I don't have a single pirated bit of software running on any of my systems.

Currently BitFlyer's fees are based on various levels of their platform;

Bitcoin easy exchange 0.15% base fee, 0.01% lowest fee (the more volume you generate, the lower the fee will become).
Lightning Spot 0.15% base fee, 0.01% lowest fee (the more volume you generate, the lower the fee will become).
Bitcoin Market FREE
Lightning FX FREE

In this case the volumes are quite justified as Japan has legalized Bitcoin - demand is growing legitimately. Sure, there might be some sort of volume manipulation going on, mainly done to lower their general fee, but for now it's all good. Chinese volumes were so obviously fake, that basically no one was taking them seriously. We'll have to give this exchange time. Bitcoin is booming in Japan, which means that more and more exchanges will pop up, and eventually snoop away customers from BitFlyer as they might get a better deal elsewhere.

You are clearly not a trader. If you put up relatively large buy and sell orders simultaneously, you as whale, or at least as entity behind these walls, look to buy or sell coins within a certain price range. It's already mentioned by RichardsNY, but you fail to understand it. It's amazing how people here just post something without looking at the actual open buy and sell orders that are clearly visible.

Correct. After all, it's a free market - exchanges aren't forced to follow the other if they don't see a valid reason to do so. That's exactly why Bitstamp is my main exchange. I like its conservative nature, while others like the wild ups and downs coming from exchanges like Bitfinex.

Whales mostly have balances on several major exchanges, which means that they don't have to transfer money to X exchange in order to buy coins there, and sell them on Y exchange. It takes far too much precious time away - and you know, time is money. In that regard, the lower average price on Bitstamp would have been bought up already. Whatever the reason is/was for their lower price, it has already slimmed down, and will likely continue to do so.

Problem isn't really Bitcoin itself, but more that you're walking on illegal ground as soon as fiat comes into action. In some cases I do agree that certain laws can be confusing - even to the extent of them not making any sense, but that's most likely due to the fact that the government itself doesn't know what to do. They are desperately looking for ways to put their finger on Bitcoin, but thus far it doesn't seem to be working.

Eventually... Eventually we will break through the $10,000 level like we have broken through the $1000 level not that long ago. $2000 is nothing more than peanuts if you are able to see the bigger picture.

Long term speaking, the price will only increase further - as has been the case from the very beginning. Short term speaking, there are enough opportunities to make use of. Problem however is that you need to see these opportunities. If you don't see them, and thus don't make use of them, you'll be left behind.

Actually, if you missed this great opportunity, then it is in fact your fault. Again, in order to make use of these opportunities, you need to see them, and if you don't see them, you're doing something wrong...

CAD will be an easy job. USD however is the main point of importance for people. I personally tend to say no, but it's practically impossible to say anything with value when the market is going completely nuts. If we shift our focus to 2018, then the chances of seeing a year and USD parity become incredibly higher. I personally don't believe in an ETF approval, but if it miraculously gets approved this month, then we'll be touching $2000 within a month or two.

I not so long ago called top at MAX $1450, but obviously, I'm beaten by the market. I'm not a clown that just says the price will reach x amount like others do, where after that you don't hear anything from them again. For now I'll just wait with making any further predictions as the market is going completely nuts. It may fall down a few hundred dollars, but it may very well continue to go up a few hundred dollars. I'm just being happy with the volatility that is being shot at us. Last days I have probably had like 10 hours of sleep in total, where I haven't even been outside. It's all trading.

In relative terms, the volume and overall buy support is piss poor. It doesn't take much to dump the price down with a small number (again, in relative terms) of coins. Example; 2K BTC is enough to dump Bitstamp around $240 lower, currently. The higher the price goes, the lower, and thus weaker to overall buy support gets. Whales that keep gaining coins whilst trading, will have more control over the market than ever before in this pace.

If I purely look at my year results thus far, then trading the volatility has generated me higher profits than simply holding. But the main thing is that you should do both at the same time. Holding doesn't require any attention when your coins sit safely in offline storage. From there you can focus purely on short term trading to benefit from every possible price swing. No point into choosing one of the two when you can do both at the same time.

Bitcoin has proven to be so volatile, that it will reach levels people right now think are not possible to reach. However, the higher the price is, the higher the eventual bottoms will be. At this point it's too soon to rule out prices of $1000 or slightly below that, but I am sure that at some point these levels will be the same as $200-$300 are right now. If we happen to fall back that low, then buy as many coins as possible as these opportunities won't be there endlessly - make full use of them in case they show up.

What a logic... People living uninhabited places doesn't mean they don't make use of technology and internet. In order to make use of Bitcoin you just need to have a smartphone and internet, and that's really it. Mostly, these people have even notebooks and everything. Internet comes either through mobile carriers, and in case their reach doesn't extend to these uninhabited places, there is satellite internet. Now really, what's the problem here?

Actually there was such a bubble back in 2013 where altcoins got pumped to the moon as well.

Litecoin's all time high - $53
Novacoin's all time high - $27
Namecoin's all time high - $13.50
Peercoin's all time high - $7.20

It was insane how the prices have been going up back then, and insane how altcoins right now are going up. Currently, the 2.0 altcoins are experiencing the pump of their life. Especially Ethereum. This token's market cap is touching the $8 billion mark - insane! I feel sorry for people entering the market at such prices. They'll be eaten alive!

No party until people cash out.

It's amazing looking at the price that's going up like crazy. I however get a less satisfying feeling if I think about what's going to happen when things cool down. It might very well be that this increase is related to the ETF review on May the 15th. If this increase is indeed releted to the review by the SEC, and the ETF doesn't come through (which is exactly what I think the outcome will be), then we'll see the price go down with $200-$300 in a matter of 24-48 hours. That's why I am planning to close a few large positions around the 10th or 11th of May.

Sign addresses from wallets that have sent 1000BTC to exchanges in the last 24 hours, else, it didn't happen. It's a common thing for people to just make up something. If the price peaks at for example $1600, people have sold a huge load of coins at the top. If the price goes down, they have bough a huge load of coins exactly at the bottom... Great fantasy. Proof or it didn't happen.

I personally don't give this ETF even 0.1% chance of getting approved, but it's hard to deny that certain market movers do value the decision of the SEC to grant the Winklevoss twins a review. But as most market understanding people know, even a tiny bit of speculation is enough to initiate a bull run. We'll only find out once the SEC comes out of hiding with their final statement. It will happen on the 15th of May, this month. But according to the official statement, it could also happen before the 15th. We'll see.