It may have been what started us down the path, but at this point I think we have gone way past that as the reason. STEEM has been doing amazing recently, and there has been plenty of opportunity for people to dump their SBD in exchange for either STEEM or BTC/USD. I've discussed with a lot of other people, and I think there is more of a fundamental market-force at play. Traders are willing to buy/hold SBD even well past the point that they are guaranteed their "1 USD worth of STEEM" in return. There seems to be way more demand than the current circulating supply can satisfy.