After Government Raid, Jittery Future for Bitcoin

Published: Monday, 20 May 2013 | 12:56 PM ET. With news last week that U.S. authorities had seized assets of the world's largest bitcoin exchange, traders and other people interested in the digital currency are looking nervously at the future.

Bitcoins have always operated outside of the established financial system, so does the action by the Department of Homeland Security signal the start of a movement to regulate the field? And if so, how will the people who use the virtual currency react?

Financial experts said they don't expect the action to throw the bitcoin world into chaos—and if regulation is coming, it might actually be welcomed. Some, though, think the government might be acting in a knee-jerk fashion.

"It is a little bit of a hysterical reaction from the U.S. authorities," Jon Rushman, former managing director at BlackRock and a professor at the University of Warwick in the U.K. said in a statement

"There are concerns of bitcoin being used in illegal ways, but unless there is more substantial evidence of this, I don't think there is any reason to shut down the main bitcoin exchange. U.S. dollars, Russian rubles and euros have all been used by criminals, but nobody is suggesting their central banks should be closed down and their governors imprisoned." - Read more here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100750803