Steem price being pumped for an inevitable dump or are we seeing actual interest?
For unexplainable reasons the prices of Steem and Steem Dollars are price spiking. This is good and bad in my opinion. If it's just a short term spike then it is irrelevant. If it's a long term trend then on one hand it's good because it means the reward pool will be bigger but then it may be bad because people who were waiting to buy Steem at $1 and less may have missed their chance.
It is also possibly just a pump and dump. Most of the volume seems to be coming from Upbit and South Korea (as usual) which indicates in my opinion a pump and dump. This would be more relevant if South Korean users were appearing on Steem at the same time (represented by user growth metrics) and we would casually see this as we would see more activity on the site. Currently activity on Steemit.com appears very low compared to what it was in December. For this reason I think the spike is unreasonable and will likely fall unfortunately.
Will my prediction be wrong? Let's wait and find out.