bmdavi3Smack-Fu Master, in training:
It's probably true that those who live in Cyprus are not the ones directly responsible for driving up the price of Bitcoins right now, but that doesn't mean the Cyprus crisis isn't at least partly responsible for the rise. I live in the United States, but I read about what's happening in Cyprus just fine. I imagine lots of people do. When those who are on the fence about buying Bitcoin read about a story like this, I imagine "government / bank seizing / freezing bank accounts" might be enough to push them over the edge and make the purchase.
That statement makes more sense to me than the Quote from an "expert" on virtual worlds on the site...
So you think money is unsafe in a bank, so you move it into drastically less safe environment like Bitcoin economy, where it could be stolen by hackers or, more likely, have most of it's value wiped out by another lightning fast crash. I mean, 50% price drop in a matter of hours, if this would happen in Wall Street, you'd have flocks of people jumping from buildings.
The Wall Street suicide scenario you're referring to is where years or decades of stock gains are wiped out. You're comparing that to bitcoin losing 1 week's worth of gains? Not exactly suicide worthy.
With bitcoins, as long as you keep your key secret, no one can take them from you. That's something at least you can control. When you money is in a bank, you don't have control. Granted bitcoin price is volatile, but you still own them, and bitcoin supply isn't at the whim of some central authority. So the only factor that really affects bitcoin price is future demand (and speculation thereon).