When I first heard of Bitcoin, the value of Bitcoin was 6$. At that stage it was a proof of concept of a new idea of cryptocurrency so I was not that interested in it when I first heard about it.
In 2013 however I started to get more interested in the currency because it was actually been used by sites to purchase items such as Cheapair. And now of course major sites like NewEgg and Expedia are now accepting bitcoins.
Because there is acceptance by these and many other retailers, as well as some small bricks and mortar stores such as Cups and Cakes Bakery in San Francisco there is a sense of a growing real world marketplace rather than just a speculation.
The market cap of Bitcoin is also rising all the time, with Bitcoin valued at the time of this post at 2595 USD.