When I was looking to buy a little while back btc was trading $200 these Casascius coins were going for $350 on ebay so they definitely have a premium. There were probably 10 or less total for sale at the time.
Wedbush Bitcoin report: Summary: http://www.streetinsider.com/Analys...+10-100x+Current+Price+-+Analyst/8936836.html Report: http://www.scribd.com/doc/188644617/Bitcoin-Intrinsic-Value-Wedbush-Report-December-2013
Another mini-crash, I mean buy in opportunity, when price dropped from 1200+ to 900-..... Of course recovered rather quickly, back to just below 1100...
The Chinese restriction on BTC exchange has no fundamental impact on Bitcoin's core libertarian purpose. i.e. individuals are still free to exchange BTC for goods and services without an intermediary.
Only for Chinese banks. Individuals in China are still free to do anything they want with Bitcoins. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Chinese move came after officials in Beijing had expressed some support for the legitimacy of Bitcoin. Yi Gang, the deputy governor of the Peopleâs Bank of China and the director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said in November that although the virtual currency might not find favor with Chinaâs central bank, people should be free to participate in the Bitcoin market. âOrdinary members of the public have the freedom to participate in Bitcoin transactions as a kind of commodity trading activity on the Internet, provided they assume the risks themselves,â the statement said.
Just for prosperity, the current crash was caused by China: "The People's Bank of China has issued today (Dec 5th) that Bitcoin is a "fictitious currency" and that it cannot be used for circulation as currency in the market in China. http://squawkonomics.com/2013/12/05/pboc-states-bitcoin-cannot-be-circulated-in-the-market/ The statement regarding banks and financial companies applies to payment companies, or 支付 companies, as well." Result: BTC's marketcap quickly dropped almost half....
That's important and true, but only part of the story. The China news came out on Thursday 5th, and Bitcoin went from 1240 to 870. Then it rallied back above 1100 again on Friday 6th. The news that saw it fall to 576 (Mt Gox price) was related to Baidu's reversal on its previous decision to accept Bitcoin: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-06/bitcoin-slammed-baidu-suspends-payments-due-fluctuations http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-07/bitcoin-crashes-loses-half-its-value-two-days