I don't think the market price really tells us anything about the long term. It's been in a slide since they removed liquidity rewards and that slide was accelerated by the change to 13 week power downs. This tells me the coin is just being traded on it's hype or lack thereof more than anything.
Rep is interesting and the fact that there is no seperation between a removal of income and hit to reputation, tells me they need to go back to the drawing board on some of this. But it's still the best thing out there right now and I don't see any competitors with what I would consider viable alternatives.
I've noticed today that practally every new post is making money. And at the same time the price of Steem is going up. Did they finally figure out if you distribute the coins to a bigger base they'll be worth more?
No it's a pump n dump as Ned and Dan make for the exit. But thanks for playing! In all seriousness though someone is working on their tax write-offs, check the volume and the pricing. And look at who's exiting shortly.