The key metric to look at here would be the price of SBD relative to STEEM. The greater the ratio of SBD:STEEM, the more incentive there would be to sell SBDs for STEEM and power up.

A higher SBD price doesn’t necessarily offer greater incentive if both tokens are priced similarly. At $10 SBD, you’d still get STEEM at 1:1 if STEEM is also $10. But if STEEM were $1 instead, you’d get 10:1...a much better incentive to put at least some of those profits into SP.

Back in December, SBDs were trading over $10, but STEEM was still around the $2 range, if I recall correctly. If timed right, you could get SP at a 7:1 or 8:1 ratio by selling your SBDs. Today, you can sell SBDs for STEEM, but get less than 1:1 for them, even at $3.40 per SBD. So cashing out is likely more attractive at the moment.

Of course, if you need the money right away, cashing out SBDs at $10+ is very attractive. Investing would obviously take a back seat for most people in that situation.