The price dropped because of panic caused by the MtGox lag. Ironically, bitcoin crashed because too many people want bitcoins and the infrastructure can't handle them. There are multiple lines of evidence to support this. Account creation at MtGox is up 10 fold over last month. You think those people are going away? Most of them haven't had a chance to buy, because it takes a week to transfer money to MtGox. We saw the same thing today. As trading began in the United States, the lag went to 3, 5, then 7 minutes and the price dropped from $170 to $120, and then they suspended trading. IF they finally have their shit together when they reopen in a few hours, I think after an initial bout of craziness, perhaps another crash, the price will finally start rising again. There's 10 times as much interest in bitcoin now as there was when it first climbed from $10 to $100.