At first, I was rather disappointed in the way Steem has plummeted in value.
OK, so the vast majority of cryptocurrencies have been taking a beating - it's just that Steem has been a bit more resiliant of late.
In saying that, I was just looking at how Etherium has reacted to Bitcoin's value and I see a remarkable predictor - maybe Steem's utility really does afford it some status and respect.
Let's take a look at Steem:
Recently, before the last couple of days, there was a fall in value of 'altcoins' which didn't really affect the price of Steem too much. This tells us something about the fact that Steem has the ability, through SteemIt, to be used for something more than just a token of value - it has utility.
The graph for Steem (Poloniex):
The graph for Etherium (Poloniex):
We see that the graphs are quite similar. The real difference is the time-frame. Etherium seems to rise or fall before the corresponding action of Steem.
It could therefore be argued that the value of Etherium is (disclaimer: or was) a predictor of the future value of Steem.
Of course, this may not be true for future prices, but it does show some correlation to the value of a 'mainstream' currency such as Etherium.