The reason for that is the death of Bitcoinica. Bitcoinica offered shorting, which stabilized prices at around $5. When Bitcoinica went out of business, the only way to make money on Bitcoin is to speculate its' price increase which will drive demand; which will drive its' price even more. That being said, it might be the right time to buy Bitcoins, and sell before the bubble bursts. However, for a more stable Bitcoi…
That's nonsense. Bitcoinica have virtually no effect on the market.
The price of Bitcoin started to raise since Bitcoinca ended operations. Certainly, it won't skyrocket in 24 hours. It'll take many days (and maybe weeks) to visualize the trend.