[mikeland86]

Volume might be lower in BTC, but it's going up in pretty much any other currency, and since prices are mostly pegged to non-BTC currency, it makes sense that BTC transaction volume drops as the currency appreciates (you can buy goods using less BTC).

Also, while big % changes makes people shout bubble, they clearly are not looking at BTC in the same way early adopters and speculators are. BTC is not stock (which can look like a bubble if its up 100% in short period of time) it is closer to a newer better version of gold that only 0.00001% of the population owns. People excited about BTC are thinking about what happens if 1% of the population owned BTCs.

Bitcoin might fail (sometimes better technologies do), but it is clearly a big improvement over current currencies and that's pretty exciting.