Bitcoin sees light at end of regulatory tunnel

A year ago, when the entire stock of Bitcoin was worth $150 million, authorities were concerned most by the potential use of a new digital currency by drug dealers and petty criminals to hide their trades and launder profits. But now the Bitcoin system has swollen to $10 billion, the world’s regulators are confronting additional and bigger headaches. The result is diverging approaches from governments in different countries that have upset some previously-held expectations for the Bitcoin experiment, and in a reversal, China suddenly looks an unfriendlier place than the US. Adam Shapiro, director at Promontory Financial, a consulting firm, says the growth of interest in Bitcoin has alerted governments to the risk that it could be used to elude more than just drug enforcement agencies.