KASHMIR HILL:

So, Mt. Gox was for a long time the largest exchange. It was kind of the only place where you could go to buy Bitcoin.

But, as the value of Bitcoin has risen, it has attracted other exchanges. So there are very big exchanges in China, for example. There's one in Slovenia. And here in the U.S., a company called SecondMarket is planning to launch one this summer. So there are other players in the Bitcoin market now. So a lot of people are saying that Bitcoin is just going to route around Mt. Gox's failure.

It just clears the field for other, more legitimate companies to operate. Other critics say, you know, this is — in terms of mainstream — mainstream adoption and new people entering the Bitcoin market, this is going to be very scary for them, the idea that you might buy a bunch of Bitcoin, and then overnight see them disappear.