It's got a pretty small 'market cap' (not strictly the correct word regarding Bitcoin from what I understand but this is moot for your question) All Bitcoins a

It's got a pretty small 'market cap' (not strictly the correct word regarding Bitcoin from what I understand but this is moot for your question) All Bitcoins are worth in the region of $4.5bn: http://blockchain.info/charts/market-cap http://blockchain.info/charts/market-cap Twitter is currently worth in the region of $23bn: http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=TWTR http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=TWTR (As a side point, this either makes Twitter look ridiculously over priced or Bitcoin ridiculously under priced...) Smaller valued assets are generally more sensitive to exterior influences. Bitcoin really is venturing into the unknown as well which means the news around Bitcoin can in itself be more volatile (you can have some very bullish news followed by some very bearish news on the same day). A lot of speculators in Bitcoin are amateurs as well (me included!). This lends itself to higher volatility as well as the owners of Bitcoin are more susceptible to act emotionally and induce a panic sell or greed driven buying frenzies. It's a nervous market that isn't worth a huge amount yet. Once more is known about it and once it reaches higher valuations it will bring more stability.