In history gold and silver have been the best indicators of inflation, but today both those market are manipulated by central banks to keep prices low.
Is the current rapid price appreciation in BTC a result of the inflation brought on by fiat money printing or are we just seeing a bubble?
False dichotomy.
And no, this has nothing to do with fiat money printing. This is because the number of users is growing. If it had anything to do with money printing, the value of bitcoin would rise in concert with the value of other hard assets.