What happened in may of 2011 that caused BTC to rise to $8?

[don giovanni]

Im aware of the gawker article in june of 2011 that made it go from $8 to $30, but why was bitcoin climbing so fast the month before?

[1713955896]

1713955896

[RaTTuS]

silkroad

[don giovanni]

no one knew about silkroad before june, why did it climb in may?

[SgtSpike]

I know in late April 2011, there was a huge long thread about Bitcoin on Overclock.net, I think stemming from a news article that was posted.  That's how I heard about it.  The mods eventually locked the thread and, for a time, banished people from talking about Bitcoin at all (wtf?), but the thread had reached thousands of replies and over a hundred pages by then.  So that launched a lot of sudden interest into Bitcoin.  I can't even find the thread anymore - it may have been deleted.

Anyway, with that sudden increase in interest of Bitcoin mining (hey, you have tens of thousands of computer enthusiasts who just heard about it for the first time), they start jabbering away about it, even wanting to buy some, etc.  Some news outfits heard about it and wanted to write about it.  And it snowballed from there.

At least, that's what I believe happened with it.

[Peter Lambert]

Im aware of the gawker article in june of 2011 that made it go from $8 to $30, but why was bitcoin climbing so fast the month before?

It was a series of articles spread around the internet which increased the exposure of many people to bitcoin. As they tried to jump into the rising tide it just spiraled upward until the peak.

I myself was introduced to bitcoin sometime in late March/early April 2011 from a link on the website The Oil Drum.

[Fuzzy]

I know in late April 2011, there was a huge long thread about Bitcoin on Overclock.net, [...] I can't even find the thread anymore - it may have been deleted.

Users From Overclock.net Rushing To Mine Bitcoins


Overclockers Shutdown all Discussion of Bitcoin

First they call you a scam, then they shut your thread, then they setup their own mining pool - then you win !

http://bitclockers.com/

[SgtSpike]

I know in late April 2011, there was a huge long thread about Bitcoin on Overclock.net, [...] I can't even find the thread anymore - it may have been deleted.

Users From Overclock.net Rushing To Mine Bitcoins


Overclockers Shutdown all Discussion of Bitcoin

First they call you a scam, then they shut your thread, then they setup their own mining pool - then you win !

http://bitclockers.com/

Thanks.  Looks like they deleted the thread sometime before June.  The original post is forever saved though:
http://web.archive.org/web/20110428230202/http://www.overclock.net/other-software/1001123-earn-your-gpu-bitcoin-mining-guide.html

[Fuzzy]

Thanks.  Looks like they deleted the thread sometime before June.  The original post is forever saved though:
http://web.archive.org/web/20110428230202/http://www.overclock.net/other-software/1001123-earn-your-gpu-bitcoin-mining-guide.html

Awesome, google cache was proving useless

[marhjan]

no one knew about silkroad before june, why did it climb in may?

Saying 'no one' knew about SR before June is just silly and wrong.  There WERE people using it before that - it just went way more public in June when we had US Senators making non-sensical statements in the press

[avegetable]

Im aware of the gawker article in june of 2011 that made it go from $8 to $30, but why was bitcoin climbing so fast the month before?

Before that, there were articles in Time and Forbes in April and May that must have accelerated exposure

http://web.archive.org/web/20110429054157/http://techland.time.com/2011/04/16/online-cash-bitcoin-could-challenge-governments/

http://web.archive.org/web/20110502052302/http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0509/technology-psilocybin-bitcoins-gavin-andresen-crypto-currency.html

[Bit_Happy]

Yes, Time and Forbes were the ones getting many people excited then.

[b!z]

Yes, Time and Forbes were the ones getting many people excited then.

I can confirm this.

[kgo]

There was a major federal crackdown on several high profile internet gambling sites.

[benjamindees]

Lots of media attention for SilkRoad.

[gressen]

I like this question. I like this one even better: what triggered the drop later?

[Raize]

I was here for the March 2011 to June 2011 fiasco.

I remember Artforz coyly describing in IRC that he sold 8,000 BTC at $0.90ish then rebought mere minutes later at $0.75.

I also remember people talking about how the wall at $1.20 had killed any possible future increases in the price, so everyone knew it was headed back down to $0.12 or lower.

I remember there were some people blaming "dark pools" at MtGox for killing the price of Bitcoin.

Then I remember it started to increase and blew past $1.20, landing between $1.50 and $1.75 for a while.

At this point there was a massive growth in hash rate, almost everyone was certain this was a botnet. It did seem to turn out to be true.

Then there was a post of someone wanting to purchase, quite privately, 200,000 BTC. It was mostly ignored till IRC logs came out seemingly confirming the transaction happened. Shortly thereafter, a block contained such a transaction.

I remember people talking about fiddling with intensity settings on our GPUs and downclocking memory to get the most we possibly could out of our Radeon 5950s. Oh how I miss the days of GPU-setting-crafting and theorizing on what the best mining card was given the prices.

I remember the price blowing past $4, and many GPU miners releasing their first Youtube videos brazenly showing/advertising to the world their hashing power.

I also won't forget some of the articles coming out, mostly mises.org users complaining that Bitcoin didn't follow Mises Regression Theorem and other tidbits. I agreed with them on many of their other issues, but not on Bitcoin.

Meanwhile, the rest of the press seemed to be mostly ecstatic about Bitcoin as avegetable indicated. This may have been the biggest driver, in fact. It was a huge deal when the first Time and Forbes articles hit about Bitcoin, because to most of us, we thought Bitcoin was leaving a niche market and becoming mainstream. It was still just an odd curiosity for most, however. Further still, a huge number of new holders thought Bitcoin was "going to the moon" and they'd suddenly be millionaires. They were sadly still thinking in terms of fiat.

I remember a couple of scammers getting busted, and a few of the users that got scammed rebuying their positions.

Lastly, I remember the cries of "Bitcoin bubble" and most of the learned observers quite certain that the supply had only temporarily dried up, and eventually someone would be along to sell a huge chunk of coin.

Ultimately, I think the MtGox hack may have done the biggest damage. Especially in terms of that huge spike in Bitcoin Days Destroyed we all saw around May 2011. That seemed to be the clearest indicator that a single entity (MtGox or other) was sitting on hundreds of thousands of BTC.

Silk Road actually was ignored by myself. I can't speak for others. I think a number of people thought it was a scam site and the website design tended to reinforce that opinion. I guess we were wrong, though.

[molecular]

no one knew about silkroad before june, why did it climb in may?

noone knew about the silkroad? Yet it was mentioned in the Forbes Magazine (print version, May 9th 2011) article about Bitcoin that shows a pic of Gavin burning FIAT currency.

[molecular]

How do you guys think Max Keiser became a bitcoin millionnaire? :-)