[eduardordm]

This last price fluctuation is doing more harm to bitcoin than a moratory does to a country.

No one can even explain formally why this is happening. Lack of liquidity? Penny stock behavior? Are there sharks driving the prices to make a spectacular exit?

Why isn't mining regulating the prices? Is it too costly?

My personal and completely uninformed opinion is that bitcoin is doomed.

[rms]

It's happening because more and more people are buying Bitcoins are fewer are selling. Supply and demand. This interview talks about the real-time increased demand. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5517634

[mfringel]

Every seller must have a buyer, and vice versa.

A better way to state it is: "More people are willing to buy at the seller's asking price, than are willing to sell at the buyer's bid."

[readme]

The increased demand only matters if it lasts.

I suspect pump & dump. Just wait, it will plummet soon when the puppet masters sell their bitcoins.

[sfjailbird]

Seems to me the more valuable bitcoins are, the more attractive it is for vendors to accept them as payment. And the more vendors accept them as payments for real stuff, the more attractive and established they become as a currency.

Also, concluding that bitcoin is doomed because too many people want them seems backwards.

[kiba]

Why isn't mining regulating the prices? Is it too costly?

It is a consensus that mining don't affect the price of bitcoin. However, mining is certainly affected by the price of bitcoin.