Bitcoin has three largely distinct things going for it:
1) Ease/speed/cost of sending payments (compared to ACH transfers, credit card processing companies, paypal)
2) Anonymity
3) Potential for price appreciation.
I'm quite bullish on #1, whether BTC itself or another crytocurrency or a similar system, and long term I'm glad I don't own paypal/mastercard/etc.
#2 has been attacked, at least in the USA, by requiring the exchanges that people used to convert USD->BTC and back again to turn over a lot of detailed information on their customers.
#3 is gambling not investing. So it can be fun but don't bet any money you cannot afford to lose.
Yes, a buddy and I while in University set everything up and bought a few coins (when they were trading ~$100) at one point we had 4 coins. we did some trading and always came out worse off so decided with our 2 we would just hold. Well a year later the exchange we were holding one in closed and we lost one coin. So are now down to 1 with no plan for selling or anything.
I like the idea but honestly see it as purely speculation so I don't think i'll be buying any more.
You were holding your bitcoins at the exchange? No no no. What Dago said. At least store them on your computer, and have a hard copy print out of your wallet's private key so you can recover them if your computer crashes. (This can be as simple as a printed out piece of paper in an envelope).
I have also heard that investors in china have been buying into it amid speculations on the value of the dollar and what impact our future trade policies and possible tariffs will have on other countries.
The chinese are buying bitcoins because they face extremely harsh currency controls in trying to move money overseas and bitcoin is one way around that. It doesn't really have much to do with us/the US.