The 2013 run up in bitcoin prices is highly correlated with the increased bitcoin transaction volume due to bitcoin-facilitated online gaming, e.g. Satoshi Dice

The 2013 run up in bitcoin prices is highly correlated with the increased bitcoin transaction volume due to bitcoin-facilitated online gaming, e.g. Satoshi Dice, which are especially attractive to US gamers wanting to circumvent banking restrictions. Besides the privacy that bitcoin affords to gamers, benefits to gaming sites include very low transaction costs and credit card fraud elimination. Thus bitcoin gaming sites can have a lower rake than non-bitcoin gaming sites - which is better for customers. Accordingly, there is a lot of upside left as new bitcoin gaming sites go live, and existing gaming sites begin to accept bitcoins.