The price was rising slowly based on more than just the ponzi scheme. There are a lot of advances and the block reward is dropping in half. This means that we are outpacing the 50% inflation at the current rate. When the inflation rate is cut in half and we continue at this rate, that means a 25% increase in value yearly at least.

Pirate dropped about 10k BTC last month and the price dropped from $9 to $8. He dropped 100k BTC over the weekend. It was bound to fall. He can only drop it that much 4 more times.