EDIT: It's a psychology thing. They either wanted to gain more BTC (rpietila admitted this and I did so too) and/or hedge on possible BTC failure. Are you kidding me? This is expressing so little faith in Monero, if an alt has any chance to succeed it needs fanatics who aim at No1.
Please link where I have said my aim is to gain more BTC? If I read my mind correctly, it has not been my aim since summer-13.
Hedge is something I have talked about. USDXMR in my understanding would immediately gain a lot if something serious happened to Bitcoin, making it a perfect hedge.
I also believe Monero has the chance of taking over Bitcoin.
The more I've thought about it, the more this last point seems possible.
Bitcoin seems to really be getting away from it's roots and is seemingly poised as a Visa/MasterCard competitor, rather than a currency competitor. Also, the fact that it's not truly anonymous makes it's utility as "e-cash" limited.
I would be absolutely shocked if the NSA and other 3-letter agencies didn't already have automated tools that make tracing bitcoin transactions back to individuals a trivial task. The IRS and other tax agencies around the globe won't be too far behind.