Pff.... on the contrary (your chart looks like "the end of a short-leg period"). Fundamentally: number-of-Consumers-using as well as the number-of-Merchants-accepting Bitcoin grows 12 to 20% each month, and it doesn't show a slow down! Where do you find any product or any economy growing this strong? And this while we are still in embryonic-stage! Here is the chart I'm looking at:
Growth of 12% to 20% of a very small number of merchants who take Bitcoins is nearly meaningless. That's like comparing my monthly mortgage payment amount to the total amount of worldwide monthly banking transactions. The other thing to consider is that most of the merchants accepting Bitcoins never have anyone come into their shop paying with Bitcoins. We had a pizza shop owner our RTP area of North Carolina loudly appear in the media stating he would accept Bitcoins. Three months later he had to admit that not a single customer ever showed up and paid with Bitcoins - and this is in the tech savvy Research Triangle Park area.
Indeed! It just tells us how MUCH upside there is...we are just embryonic. LOL, just ask Overstock.com and TigerDirect.com (and it will not take long before eBay will join).
How to short Bitcoin: Borrow some Bitcoin from someone and pay them some interest for the use of their capital.
Of course I know that. They will find a profitable business-model that both kinds of money and companies can work together. By the way: Carl Icahn tries to split them up....