Worst year? are you talking price or adoption?
Because as far as price goes, sure its one of the larger declines, its like been a really slow bubble pop year =P
But last I checked the price is still above the most recent bubble($266) and definitely above its lowest of $0.
Adoption has been quite impressive though, more vendors jumping on board, services popping up like wildfire, governments taking it seriously, etc...
The way I see it, we are entering its more mature growth cycle. Its quite similar to the .com bubble. There was huge hype around the .com bubble which ultimately lead to a massive round of losses... but shortly after is when innovation & real value was being created for the web, now ".com's" are worth more than they ever were - meaning what was once just a hype driven bubble, has steadily grown into something used by everyone, everywhere, everyday...
We are at that very beginning of perhaps, but true & real innovation for crypto... is my guess.
So, the above is what bitcoin always has going on for it 'behind the scenes'
The only thing that will cause it to go super high in any short / midterm will be the complete implosion of major world fiat currencies, primarily USD. Once it gets inflated into the sky, at incredible rates, people will be 'cashing out of USD / other fiat' into some other form of safe haven. Bitcoin has become part of that 'safe haven' realm in such occasions. The secondary effect of this failure, will be more people seeking other ways to transact outside of USD ... bitcoin fits the bill for this really well.
Basically, what it comes down to.
For there to be true demand behind bitcoin's price ... the critical mass has to WANT to use it as an alternate currency. What will get us there quicker is us in the community who actually give a shit about what Bitcoin offers the world, actually getting off our asses and 'spreading the good word' about it. What will get us there REALLY FUCKING FAST, will be world monetary systems failing every day.
So, either the community decides to take action, which some have(hence is part of the reason why bitcoin is used as much as it is today and responsible for a decent chunk of its price point) and spread the word OR the community continues to sit back and wait for the demise of major world currencies. Of course, theres doing both =) ... which I imagine some of us are!
I am talking strictly in terms of BTC price. You pointed out the April 2013 bubble - it went to 260-270 USD , that's the last major support for BTC price wise. We are around 370 USD at the moment and have been there for days. As long as the price stays above the support of 270 USD or maybe psychologically important 300 USD - we are still good. On the off chance that I falls down below 300 USD - we are fucked and could see it go back under 100 USD. I hope it will not happen, and for me this is a long term play - not a short speculation, however many new investors bought in January-March period and the losses are substantial for a lot of people at the moment.