Maybe its both factors, maybe reason for the levels of speculation is based on more people discovering it, resulting in people who have followed it for years believing that we are likely at the point where its going to spread exponentially faster and quickly becoming widely used. If they are right then its going keep increasing.
I can only see the media coverage increasing in the future right now.
On the 22nd March there was an article headline that was featured with a picture prominently on the Guardian newspaper's website --
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/22/silk-road-online-drug-marketplace'' As of January 2012 it is the second most popular UK newspaper website, behind the Daily Mail's Mail Online, with a
daily average of 2,937,070 browsers to the Mail's 4,838,140,[119] and in April 2011 MediaWeek reported that it is the fifth most popular newspaper site in the world.[120]''
Roughly 3 million people who went to the site that day
Could not miss the article, headlined ''
Silk Road: the online drug marketplace that officials seem powerless to stop''
''Authorities around the world know about the website, but closing it is another matter – partly because it uses Bitcoins''
That day I would estimate maybe 85% of people who saw it had not known about silk road and could order from it almost as easy as shopping on amazon, and a small percentage of them but a significant number when it has such a huge audience of 3 million people will want to get bitcoins, because of its unique fundamentals of anonymity and the number of interesting things that people only accept bitcoins for.
if its true that you can send through western union and receive bitcoins soon its accessibility and uses increases a lot, and will attract more people.
It can be used very easily to evade tax and that will surely keep attracting new users as offshore banking continues to increase its ease of access due to tighter laws on banks that have grown steadily.
But of course at the same time I'm sure there are things that could happen that could destroy it that are impossible to predict.
After Cyprus people are waking up to the harsh dangerous precedent that has been set - banks in the EU now have the power to take money that one expects to be guarded, without warning, its simple theft and every expert I've spoken to about the future of the Euro think that it is certain the Euro crisis will lead to the southern states of spain and italy going past the point of no return with their debt and collapse, splitting them from the EU and crashing Fiat currency. Its only a matter of time but it looks unavoidable.
People are waking to the fact since the financial crisis normal currency has its own structural problems that mean it inst completely safe either and can be devalued by actions taken by governments.
Also in 2008 the world was reminded that for the past hundred years or more severe economic depressions have repeatedly occurred, and have usually been caused by events and causes that absolutely no one predicted, I haven't seen any real changes that make me believe it won't happen again.
In the west taxes are far beyond levels that help economies, they are so high they cause investment in the private sector to be cut, I think stagnation of growth will last until Europe particularly makes massive changes to its high tax, high state expenditure, high regulation, massive debts and deficits as they are currently.
I think fiat currencies are going to crash and the very large increase in alternatives like gold indicates the markets are reflecting there arent may reasons to expect this problem to improve.
Bitcoins finite coin amount protects it from the problems and has the chance of becoming a realistic safe, alternative if things get worse. If the chance of bitcoins ending up a highly trusted, common way of storing capital, is only 3.5./%, but the 1000's of percent it would increase in value makes it investing as much as you possibly can afford to lose in it as the reward could make you rich,
I think there are lots of fundamental reasons that mean this currency has a chance of
doing this. I'm going to buy as much as I can
Bitcoin is the new future money of the REAL WORLD but you are just too blind to see it
It may well be, that doesn't explain why the price has gone from $10-$130 in a few months. That sort of growth is clearly speculative and therefore unsustainable and at some point there will be a correction.
You can believe in the future of bitcoin without sticking your head in the sand, which unfortunately seems to be the standard response for many people here.
If bitcoin is going to grow and be successful it will have to be based upon actual value and real growth, not simply speculation.
At least someone here knows what they're talking about.
haha 
