BTC price shooting up to $24/BTC

[ARapalo]

I've been out of bitcoin for a while, but I did have 2 cards constantly mining since last year. I just checked up btc value, and it shot up to around $24. Last time I was involved, it was at a measly $7. Any reason obvious reason for such a huge increase?

[bullioner]

Two main reasons: supply, and demand.

[Kupsi]

This is good reading:

http://www.runtogold.com/2012/12/during-2012-fiat-currencies-and-gold-collapse-against-bitcoin/

[evolve]

Greed.

[smoothie]

@OP People  bought BITCOIN....THE END lol

[steamboat]

This is good reading:

http://www.runtogold.com/2012/12/during-2012-fiat-currencies-and-gold-collapse-against-bitcoin/

+1

Just stumbled upon that today myself.

[sublime5447]

Greed.

+1

[ElectricMucus]

Greed.

+1

and this

[sublime5447]

God i hate that game!

[ARapalo]

Then why wasn't "greed" a reason for this last year, or why demand all of a sudden jumped up? I just got back into it, so don't know if a few large companies or individuals started to buy up a shit ton of BTC to inflate the price.

[evolve]

My guess would be fear. Last year, people were still scared from the $32 crash.  As to why this fear went away, who knows...memories are short, and greed is strong, I guess. 

Or, perhaps, a new influx of members that weren't around for the last crash (or all the hacks and scams) have more confidence than the older members and are creating a new bubble.

Or wizards.

Really, there is likely no one reason that this is happening and anyones guess is as good as the next one.

[Chalkbot]

My guess would be fear. Last year, people were still scared from the $32 crash.  As to why this fear went away, who knows...memories are short, and greed is strong, I guess. 

Or, perhaps, a new influx of members that weren't around for the last crash (or all the hacks and scams) have more confidence than the older members and are creating a new bubble.

Or wizards.

Really, there is likely no one reason that this is happening and anyones guess is as good as the next one.

It can still be fear I think, just fear of not owning BTC when the price goes up.

[Melbustus]

My guess would be fear. Last year, people were still scared from the $32 crash.  As to why this fear went away, who knows...memories are short, and greed is strong, I guess. 

Or, perhaps, a new influx of members that weren't around for the last crash (or all the hacks and scams) have more confidence than the older members and are creating a new bubble.

Or wizards.

Really, there is likely no one reason that this is happening and anyones guess is as good as the next one.

I know your position about the recent price rise and that's fine, but to imply that the bitcoin ecosystem is similar to how it was during the 2011 spike is absurd. Doesn't bitpay alone have 2000 merchants signed up? We've gone through a nasty process of developing more professionalism and smarter best practices through that series of hacks and scams. To be sure, that stuff will always happen from time to time, but I'm hopeful that the relentless rash of it which we saw in mid 2011 through the pirate fiasco last summer is over.

Plus higher profile press coverage (obv, Wordpress, Bloomberg, Forbes, NPR), with more reasoned, accurate, less-negative tone/content too. Higher hash-rate, more transaction volume, longer history without *any* fundamental protocol breach (in my experience, this is actually a big one for older guys who tend to have a "wait and see" approach to new stuff).... Just a healthier ecosystem all around. Does that justify $24/btc right now? I don't know. Personally, I'm long, but I can certainly see the case for waiting for a correction if one is good at market timing. That's a different matter, though.

[kingcrimson]

evolve only cares about being right, he will never modify his position even if bitcoin continues its track of success. there will be people like this every step up. same exact thing happened as gold went from $200 to $2,000

[evolve]

I would agree that there have been some changes in the bitcoin ecosystem in the last couple of years, but I think the price is being driven up by speculation, not usability.

From a practical standpoint, if we are to consider btc as a currency, its relative value (as pegged to another currency, such as usd or eur) should be meaningless. In other words, when I spend a dollar, I don't worry about its value relative to the yen, or stress if it lost 8 pips to the euro.  

But that's not what we see with bitcoin. Every other thread has a prediction about btc being worth $100,000 in a few years.  That says to me that bitcoin is being used primarily as a speculative vehicle, and that speculation (greed) is what drives the price.

Just my opinion though....

[evolve]

evolve only cares about being right, he will never modify his position even if bitcoin continues its track of success. there will be people like this every step up. same exact thing happened as gold went from $200 to $2,000

Don't tell anyone, but precious metals are overvalued right now too.

[sgbett]

Well thats because you are talking about relative value of that gold to USD or euro or such like.

[evolve]

Gold is a commodity, why wouldn't I peg its value to a currency?

[ajk]

the only logical answer that was said here was supply and demand,

I dont understand how greed would come into play here, and like most who have followed bitcoin the situation we are in now is 100000000000x different than the crash we experienced 1 year ago, the run up and down happened in such a short period of time and  back then all it took was one big sell/buy to cause the market to panic in either direction because of how few were involved in bitcoin

What does greed have to do with this at all? or the reference with musical chairs?

bitcoin aside of getting press from some decent sources mainly because of how well it is performing to other financial assets, securities, you name it bitcoin is beating it. but where does greed fall into the mix? its not like MTGox,someone who has a insane amount of coins or DPR of SR are going around on every forum advocating to the world how amazing bitcoin is, the world is just slowly realizing it one by one as people see the true benefit to bitcoin

Lol @ your comments man seriously, Gold and Silver being over priced? it just makes sense when something that is limited in supply starts being bought up, not to mention that a majority of the stuff is stashed away in banks or reserves so what there is available to be bought is limited, as well as the limited amount of new gold/silver being introduced, With a setup like this how can the price not go up?

Bitcoin is essentially the same as gold, it is mined, big stashes of it are stored away by big players, and now people are beginning to notice it, its only a matter of time til bitcoin destroys its last high of 32 and it will hopefully get there in a slow and steady fashion like it has been doing the past year,

You say that anyones guess is good but that isnt true when someone also says one of the options is wizards,

Bitcoin is going up. Why ? Because fundamentally it has to just like gold and silver did,

[ajk]

People are taking a look at Bitcoin now, a year or so later, and it is going strong.
The code is good. Community is growing.... Their trust factor increases.
The decision to park some wealth in bitcoins is made.

This is happening at a growing rate. Consequently the price per coin is going up.

Bitcoin, like gold, is a value store. ... easy transactions are just a bonus.

Now this is something I would +1

Every passing day the strongest hands involved in bitcoin are getting stronger, veteran small ballers are getting rich, Anyone involved in bitcoin the past year is getting rich, in no way will bitcoin be valueless til EVERYONE meaning all 100% of those involved in bitcoin says so, so even if 2 are involved it is still valuable to those 2,

See you all at 1000 ill be on my island,