The indictment says:
involved the transport and transmission of funds that were known to the defendant to have been derived from a criminal offense and were intended to be used to promote and support unlawful activity
I wonder what that's about. I doubt that he was knowingly helping the Silk Road or anything like that...
The thing is... Why do people pay a premium for bitcoin when they can just buy it from an exchange by linking their bank? There are a lot of people that intentionally want to remain anonymous because they are laundering money or made the money illegally. I have asked some borrowers before why they can afford such high interest rates and they have told me the about their customers.
It could be that, or a million other reasons too
Why do people like privacy in general? Nobody likes to be observed and recorded even if they have done nothing wrong...
Why do people not just use their real name or social security number as forum handles to post on the Internet?
Why does tor have any users?
Why do we still use cash for transactions when a card system would be cleaner and more efficient and eliminate the need to carry notes and coins around? (at least in 1st world countries it would work flawlessly with today's technology )
Cash is going the way of the dinosaur quickly anyway. People will either use some kind of anon coin (Bitcoin, darkcoin, whatever) directly bartering, or they won't have any anonymity. The sleeping giants finally figured out that fiat money is taking away their power and they're scared. Cash is the last battlefield and WWIII has already begun.