A government entity looking to destroy the market wouldn't necessarily care about getting a return.
Even if they were, take a look at what happened yesterday when someone dumped 5k bitcoins onto mtgox.
Even if they were, take a look at what happened yesterday when someone dumped 5k bitcoins onto mtgox.
My personal (amateur) theory is that people were hovering over their "sell" buttons, looking to cash out as we approach the landmark $100 point. Once they thought someone with a lot of coins was bailing, they took that as a sign to head for the exit.
I also think that MtGox's horrible lag factors into the dips. Their trading engine was running as much as 8 minutes behind during this event, which causes people to not be able to modify or place orders. Along with not being able to see actual "current" trading info, this causes a certain segment of the trading population to go into full panic mode.
Placing market sell orders in an engine that's showing you ancient data during a crash seems suicidal, but for some reason people do it.
I'd love to see Gox upgrade its engine. I honestly think it would make a notable difference in price stability.
Even better, I'd like to see the market grow strong enough to support 3 or 4 primary trading sites. There are a number of others now, but the rest have such low volume that you should only use them to pursue specific opportunities (arbitrage).