I think what makes this bitcoin price increase is because of the good news circulating on the internet and the total supply and algorithms for mining blocks are increased, making bitcoin very difficult to obtain and the price becomes very expensive.
The news can cause bitcoin prices to go up and down, and we already know this. We know that much bad news comes out in this year, and it makes the price can increase and even it still down. But soon, people will realize that the bad news will only make them get panic, and they cannot hold their bitcoin for a longer time. And they will stay calm if there is any bad news that comes out because they know that this can give a bad effect to the price, so it is better to be patient for a while.
I my self visit those pages, groups and talk on reedit before investing my money in bitcoins. By hearing the news we can absorb when will price up and when it go down.
I think the main thing we are forgetting that bitcoin doesn't really care about the news, the only thing that's important for bitcoin is the supply demand side and for that to happen and make bitcoin go up again we need a hype.
Why do you think bitcoin went down and has been stagnant for the past couple months? Because there was a hype about bitcoin during last november and december and the price was going up because there was a lot of new people who were excited about the possibilities of bitcoin however right now most of those people left so there is not much hype about bitcoin. If there is hype, price goes up, if people are not interested it goes down, simple as that.