BITCOIN MAY OR MAY NOT BE SOUND LONG-TERM, BUT IT’S A BUBBLE RIGHT NOW: The Force Behind Bitcoin’s Meteoric Rise: Millions of Asian Investors: Retail investors, mostly in Asia, are pushing the price of bitcoin to new heights.

Despite the attention focused on the launch of bitcoin futures in the U.S. last weekend, the center of gravity for trading the virtual currency, measured by volumes, has been in the East—starting in China, before shifting earlier this year to Japan and recently to South Korea as the latest hot spot.

Unlike past financial frenzies—such as the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s, when U.S. retail investors only piled in at the later stages of the rally—individual investors have been first to the party, fueling bitcoin’s 1,600% rise this year. . . .

Various forces have stoked Asia’s bitcoin fever. While individual wealth has been growing in recent years, particularly in China and South Korea, lucrative investment opportunities can be hard to find, with property markets expensive and stock markets fully valued.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that Asians are more comfortable with the concept of virtual currencies such as bitcoin, particularly younger people who have grown up in a world of e-commerce and mobile payments.

When bitcoin pops — and it will — a lot of these people are going to be ruined, and angry. While people look at the Middle East, it’s entirely possible that a bitcoin crash will be the most destabilizing event of the decade. I wonder if anyone’s prepping for that.