[workthrowaway27]

I don't know what the reasons for the rise are, but I bet it's largely driven by Chinese investors/speculators rather than anything happening in the US, but I think that is reported on less because it is not very visible if you're not based there.

[superquest]

Interesting point.

Can you point to any evidence that Chinese money has been behind large share of 2017 Bitcoin purchases?

[Top19]

As others have indicated, the WSJ said EXACTLY this this morning. 80% of Bitcoin investors are individuals from Asia.

[tobydownton]

Except that all Chinese exchanges / ICOs got banned a couple of months ago. The US is probably that largest market, it's the home of Coinbase ... I just don't see what you are basing this assertion on.

[workthrowaway27]

Here's a WSJ article from today that makes a similar claim. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-force-behind-bitcoins-meteo...

Edit: Also, I don't think the closure of the Chinese exchanges matters much since they can still buy Bitcoins, the exchanges just can't operate in China.

Edit 2: And my reason for the assertion wasn't any special knowledge of cryptocurrencies, but rather that there's lots of Chinese money pushing up asset prices in other markets, so I don't see why they same wouldn't be true of cryptocurrencies as well.

[AnimalMuppet]

Just guessing here, but... If I were Chinese, and I liked the idea of cryptocurrency (especially the untraceable part), and the government banned it, do you think that ban would make me less interested in it? Or more?

[jason_slack]

Working with Chinese co-workers, I think it would make them less interested. The penalty for disobeying their government is severe.