The operators of two exchanges for the virtual currency Bitcoin have been arrested in the US.

The Department of Justice said Robert Faiella, known as BTCKing, and Charlie Shrem from BitInstant.com had both been charged with money laundering.

Following the arrests, Superintendent of Financial Services for New York State, Benjamin Lawsky, said: "There are always going to be bad apples in any industry."

"The question is do we have enough protections in place to weed out those bad apples?" he added.