
Why is Bitcoin surging? - tefo-mohapi
Quite curious to find out why Bitcoin is surging (now past $400). What&#x27;s causing this? How does Bitcoin surge because it is not a stock?
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kasey_junk
> How does Bitcoin surge because it is not a stock?

There are lots of financial instruments that are traded on markets that are
not stocks. Things like oil, cattle futures, and currencies are all
exceedingly commonly market traded instruments.

When people are saying that Bitcoin is "surging" what they are saying is that
the price is going up on a variety of markets where Bitcoin can be exchanged
for USD.

It is comparable to when the Euro goes up in value in comparison to the
Dollar.

Bitcoin is different than most currencies in that macro-economic factors
largely drive the price differences in most headline currency prices. Bitcoin
is still such a tiny market that minor fluctuations in a small set of
speculative market participants can cause large price swings.

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nyddle
"The price of the cryptocurrency bitcoin surged on Wednesday to its highest in
more than a year amid a wave of Chinese testimonials for a “social financial
network” called MMM, which bears the hallmarks of a pyramid scheme."

[http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/ee93bc2e-82f6-11e5-8095-ed1a3...](http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/ee93bc2e-82f6-11e5-8095-ed1a37d1e096.html#axzz3qdmgG3Td)

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rndmind
This is best explained through a visual,
[https://i.imgur.com/sWRbaUE.gif](https://i.imgur.com/sWRbaUE.gif)

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debacle
This is one of those gifs that goes in the archive for a rainy day.

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notahacker
This was discussed here
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10505362](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10505362)

Top theory was that the world's most infamous Ponzi scheme architect is
heavily promoting a BTC-based pyramid scheme based around "community" and
"sharing" in multiple new markets, including China. Other theories include
market manipulation by the Winkelvosses, and mainstream coverage of non-BTC
"blockchain tech" being used by major financial institutions.

All of these effects may be pretty minor, but once BTC starts to surge it
doesn't take much to get the speculators going

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tptacek
Because people love gambling.

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Someone1234
It had a height of over $900 in 2014 just for perspective.

Last year it was worth over $400, and then it crashed down to just over $200.
There's no reason to assume this year's surge won't go the same way.

Bitcoin needs sustainable growth, not these crazy spikes caused by people
seeing the jump and joining in to "get rich." Who knows what started it? Maybe
just a very large single trade.

I will say at the current price ($480 ish) you'd be foolish to invest, it is
more likely to crash than it is to keep surging (at least looking at
historical data).

The expression "get in on the ground floor" applies here.

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debacle
Bitcoin will not see anything near "sustainable" until it stops being the
victim of speculation.

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kasey_junk
I'm curious what you mean by "victim of speculation".

Speculative market participants smooth price imbalances in most markets.

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notahacker
They also destabilise markets where the value of the underlying commodity is
very hard to gauge and speculators vastly outweigh regular purchasers or
hedgers.

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sidcool
A more important question...Is bitcoin a pyramid scheme?

