[unix-dude]

Really interesting stuff. I was expecting a crash or at least "return to normal" in that period where the price jumped to around $25 (before a mini-crash to like $16, and then the subsequent takeoff to the 40s).

Personally, I dont think they're worth $50, but heck, thats a horrible reason for you not to buy them. A more objective reason not to buy now is that there are people holding thousands of bitcoins. If a few of them (or maybe even one big player) sells tons of them, it could cause a crash like last time, when the price fell from $33ish to almost 0.

Interesting times for bitcoin either way.

[mrb]

You are incorrect. When the "price fell to zero" in June 2011, it was the result of bogus trades from a hacker: http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=55 No one had enough bitcoins to crash the price that low for real.

As of today there are so many bids on MtGox alone that selling 100k bitcoins is barely sufficient to crash the price to the low $30s. Anybody owning that much is obviously long on bitcoin. It will take a lot more than a "few large holders" to crash the price to $30 or below. It would take a massive market panic.