I wonder.... being a US citizen, and having my income and assets tied to USD.... and also being heavily invested in bitcoin.... this makes for a very interesting internal dynamic for me.

Even faucet rotators seem like such a waste of time -- it takes so long even to accumulate enough to cash out anywhere. The only way it is worth it -- if bitcoin becomes worth 6 or 7 figures..... and then those satoshis you got here and there from faucets become pretty valuable. 

I'm not sure that there was any particular news or catalyst. Price tends to follow price, and we've been in a bull run for a while. My thinking is that a lot of this run is being driven by incoming Chinese speculators, given the increasing share of exchange volume in CNY.

You think that if these marketplaces get shut down / close shop that others won't come in to replace them? I don't think that for a second. BMR owner said, I think, that he is re-branding and coming back.

There seems to be a disconnect between the two bolded statements above. I don't see any indication that this won't be sustained for quite some time -- far longer, perhaps, than a year or two.

I have a lot of Chinese family. Having said that, my experience is obviously anecdotal. But my feeling has always been that there is a much stronger emphasis on legality among Chinese than say, people in the US. Lots of gambling, booze and tobacco -- but in my experience, I have seen very little interest in drugs.

Although, there is an interesting dynamic developing. When SR shut down, there were alternatives. Increasingly, it seems, there are no alternatives. So, the question is, does that change the utility of bitcoin, and to what extent will that affect the exchange rate?

Yeah, until, like I said, you're all in bitcoin on the latest dip/crash and then all you can do is wait for recovery (or try to rush to inject fiat into an exchange to take advantage). I hate when that happens! 

I am curious how much of the market is still being driven by the latter. My feeling is -- less and less. You can see BTCChina volume here: http://bitcoinity.org/markets/btcchina/CNY However, that does not give the whole picture for Chinese exchange.

I don't like to be 100% bitcoin, if only because it means that I can't lower my average entry point on dips. It can be frustrating watching the price fall -- knowing it will rebound -- and have no cash to buy coins.

My problem is that I can't read it, and the google translate version of the page is simply atrocious. But is it confirmed -- "China Banking Regulatory Commission: "no plans to introduce regulatory policies for #bitcoin."

I saw something about the owner of BMR planning to rebrand and come back, but was not clear on the time frame. Is Sheep Market Place the only other? I'm sure some users would keep their funds in bitcoin, but hard to say what %.

A year or two? Let's not get too ahead of ourselves. I remember thinking the same thing when i first heard about bitcoin in 2010.... but these things take time. A lot of time.

Yep, no good can come from it really. Bitcoin is enough of a political statement on its own. No need to go pissing on the US government -- we know what happens when people do that...

Hmmm, interested to hear what people think about this, in regards to price action. I have no idea what to think anymore after the market reaction to the SR bust.

That's my point. Still just a small niche. Bitcoin, I think, must be adopted far more widely for any difference to be made in this regard.

Maybe they'll hold them and manipulate the market. 

More likely, I think, they will just auction off the coins they have access to -- and some lucky people will get an excellent entry price as a result. Who knows how many coins they have access to, though?

Yeah, that was my point. I just really don't understand how they could somehow stretch this story out into a 90 or 120 minute movie. I just don't see that happening, and the movie actually being interesting, all at once.

This latest bull run was somewhat unexpected to me. Well, not entirely -- from the bottom at 65 it was clear we had a ways up to go. But this push to break 167 -- almost there! -- was a very pleasant surprise. I think it won't be long until we see a new all-time high, and then $1000 won't be far off.

Hey there, and welcome to our community!    Are you saying that you are new to GPU mining bitcoin? because I think you are too late for that. You may not be too late to make a few bucks mining altcoins and exchanging for bitcoins, though -- but be careful, as there are lots of crap coins out there. And BFL-- be careful there, too. Good luck!