Also, jwzguy, while yes, there are many who are people like you who are investing because of a loss of confidence in fiat, there are others who invested purely to make a profit. Since they will have made significant profits thanks to Pirate, I think that many of them will want to get out of this somewhat volatile market so that they don't risk losing these profits.
The thing I find untenable about this scenario is that you've got people who you're saying -weren't- interested in investing in Bitcoin (because otherwise they would just leave profits in BTC) who want to get out.
Bitcoin is already seen as a very risky investment by many many people. It takes a lot of time and research to understand the merits and gain confidence.
So these people are going to jump into who aren't BTC people are now not only going to dump their money into BTC, but also a HYIP?
I don't buy it. Again - sure, maybe a handful exist, but to say that it would be enough to crash the market seems like a very wild and unsupported leap.