I thought I would go back through BTC historical price data to see how the current boom compares to previous ones. All data is by reference to Gox and is taken from
www.bitcoincharts.comThere have been six distinct "booms"/"bubbles" since BTC came to market in October 2010 (I am excluding the period before then because I have no price data and as far as I know BTC was not available on any exchanges.)
They are as follows:
October 2010 to November 2011
The baby boom. The price rose 6-fold in 5 weeks from 6 cents (!!!) to 38 cents, eventually steadying at about 20 cents
January 2011 to February 2011
The breakthrough. The price rose 3 fold in two weeks, reaching the historic figure of One Dollar before falling back a little to about 80 cents.
April 2011 to June 2011
The mother of all bubbles. The price rose a staggering 30 fold in 8 weeks, peaking at 30 dollars, before collapsing down to about $2.50 (but still well-up on the pre-boom price of 1 dollar)
June 2012 to August 2012
The quiet boom. This one has escaped attention, but actually saw prices rise 3 fold in 10 weeks, from 5 dollars to 14 dollars before steadying/bottoming out at 9/10 dollars.
January 2013 to April 2013
The first of the "modern" [edit] booms. Prices rose 20 fold in 10 weeks from $13 to $260 before bottoming out at about $70 dollars.
October 2013 to November 2013
The current boom. A fairly modest one by historic standards. Prices have risen 3 1/2 fold from 130 dollars to 440 dollars in 6 weeks.
The past is no guide to the future, but if it were, based on history I would expect any subsequent fall to be modest and fairly short lived.