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Just imagine the people that scraped together enough $ to buy 500 or 1000 bitcoins back in the day thinking they didn't have much compared to the other guys.  
  
Time both humbles us and exalts us all.  Both of us might lose our ass, but I feel this is a risk worth taking for me.  Even if I lose, I'll know I lost supporting something worthwhile.

Satoshi clearly stated on the Cryptography Mailing List in 2008 that :

as i understand it one new victim buys btc and sends them to MMM which takes some of the BTC and sells them to pay the older victims

so afterall it should lead to revenue but not necessarily buy pressure

As I understand it, the buying pressure would be from the ponzi users victims funding their accounts with MMM Global using bitcoin as a payment method. They are awarded extra money for spreading the ponzi through social media and referrals. They get big payouts as advertised as long as the ponzi is growing, when it stops growing, their payments halt, or become less reliable. The end game is the whole thing collapses and everybody is left holding the bag... except Mr Mavrodi.

It's certainly not a new phenomena. When I was first getting into bitcoin, there was a guy on these forums going by the name pirateat40. He ran a ponzi he called Bitcoin Savings and Trust. By giving out impossible interest rates at the beginning, he wound up in control of something like 200k+ bitcoins. Inevitably it collapsed and he ended up being identified, charged, and convicted.

The two are quite different in that pirateat40 was an amateur and this Mavrodi is basically the most professional scammer there is.

Many people around here trust the prices on bitstamp because it is quite old and doesn't offer leverage. But as you can see now, China is very important to the way things play out. We're over $300 in yuan equivalent and bitstamp/bitfinex are still hovering at $292.

You can also take a look at this:

https://hypron.net/bitcoinwisdom/

1) Ponzi Scheme: Over the past month in China multilevel marketing schemes (www.mmmdy.com and other imitators) have gained popularity on the internet. OKCoin has been vigilent in identifying bitcoin addresses funding this ponzi scheme and taken action to warn and notify customers by phone of such schemes prior to allowing withdraws to associated addresses. This situation has mostly affected .CN Chinese customers on the CNY exchange. The Chinese authorities are aware of this situation.

2) Increased BTC price volatility in China: Some macro speculators may be expressing a view on the CNY through Bitcoin and other assets stemming from the prior devalution. We suspect lackluster Chinese stock market performance has some customers seeking alternative assets.

So I was initially skeptical about the amount of demand coming from the MMM Global ponzi. Now okcoin is addressing it directly:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinMarkets/comments/3qd7cc/this_week_at_okcoin_china_update_mmm_ponzi/

No idea what % of this chinese led rise is attributable to it, but it is certainly cause for concern.

Bitstamp bid support is growing like a boss. Love it.

Exactly what we need to ramp up to higher prices.

We know how to instant microtransactions well in Bitcoin, without half assed insecure gimmicks. It's called payment channels and is already implemented in the streamium. It is also being generalized into the Lightning network, where people can route instant payments to one another without having a point-to-point channel between them set up first.

The same techniques can be used in any coin that is UXTO based. In due time something like that will come to Monero too.

"Instant payments" are just the latest of the many altcoin fads that have come (and gone) through the scene. Take note of it but don't overreact.

Welcome to the Bitcoin world and this forum! Even though you heard about Bitcoin awhile ago you are actually joining us just now for real!

Yes, Bitcoin world, the story, technology, etc, is quite amazing. The more you read, the more it sucks you in and the more everything makes sense. I warn you, you will be sucked in and very amazed.

Feel free to open threads and ask questions, about everything that interest you and that you don't understand. And remember, there is no stupid questions, except maybe who is and what happened to Satoshi? I am just kidding of course!

Actually, it has been quite a while since there were many questions about satoshi.

May be that the price increase is already attracting new people who are investigating bitcoin and want to know who the mysterious satoshi is.

Nobody can really know for certain. Even if somebody comes out at the real Satoshi they could just be a fake. And the real satoshi would probably want to remain hidden anyway.

Yes! I completely agree with you. I'm actually surprised that such a healthy stance is coming from a member rank. Usually people with a higher rank also waste time writing pointless replies in these threads. It's probably because you're not in a signature campaign. Satoshi threads are pointless and a waste of the data (yes, waste of kb in the database). Nobody is ever going to find out the truth. Satoshi might be dead, might have been a group, might have been a ET, etc. It does not matter anymore. Leave him it alone.

Here's my new story whenever someone tells me how "impossible" it is for Monero to ever reach or exceed the Bitcoin network: 
 

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Pretend there are only two cell phone providers, PubTel and PrivTel.  Both have a unique structure.... they give away free cell phones, but their cell phone minutes (and data plans) cost more the more people are on their network. 
 
So if there are few users, the cell phone minutes and data are extremely cheap, and with many users they become extremely expensive.  There are other providers, but many have large technical flaws so it's really down between these two for any real competition. 
 
Oh, and one more important point: There's no inter-network capabilities: if you want to talk to PrivTel customers or message them, you have to use a PrivTel phone.  If you want to talk to PubTel's customers, you have to use their phone and PubTel minutes/data.  Nothing says you can't own both phones, if you pay for them, but each network remains separate from the other. 
 
Oh, and one last fact: PubTel launched first and has a much bigger network that PrivTel, but the way they work, anyone (users and non-users) can log onto PubTel.com and see a complete record of any user's calls, texts, and data usage.  Some have criticized this, but many say that it doesn't matter: do you really care if strangers can see that you called your girlfriend, texted your mom you 'love her', or visited CNN?  Only criminals and people with something to hide mind the public nature of the PubTel network.  PubTel might have no privacy and be a lot more expensive, but they have the biggest network and many think this assures their continued dominance. 
 
PrivTel is a much smaller network, and not as many people are on it yet.  The good news is that because of this minutes and data are orders of magnitude cheaper!  Also, it has totally private billing.  No one can see who you call, and no one can see what websites you visit or what your text messages are.  It's obvious that this is a huge advantage, but PrivTel is currently a little harder to use (but getting easier) and you can't call as many people with it yet. 
 
People make the ridiculous claim that PrivTel might have some limited future... but will never match or exceed the PubTel network. 
 
Do you see how insane that claim is? 

22 pure silver coins are left in stock. The next shipment is scheduled for the end of the month.