traders have been toying with bitcoins as a bit of mind candy/ speculation for many months.  CNBC has had plenty of articles citing this.  But the real action starts when bitcoin derivatives (regulated or otherwise) are created.  The start-up exchange announced a few days ago (with a pathetically small $500,000 in start-up funding) will offer btc derivatives (futures, options, and short sales).  Once this type of exchange comes online and proves to be secure, stable, and financially sound, the btc trade volumes will explode making the "DDoS" problems witnessed recently seem like a drop in the daily volume bucket.  Why?...

Because, once derivatives are involved, there will be leveraged financial incentive to manipulate btc pricing.  Then, it becomes a matter of who has the "biggest swinging d#$%" (how traders view themselves, not my terminology).  It doesn't take a wall street firm to be involved to attract these idiot "master's of the financial universe".  Every trader dreams of one day cornering a market, similar to how Soros and others made their billions.  Bitcoin offers a limited supply, thinly traded market opportunity, and the derivatives market provides the means.

They are coming.  Many btc believers will get fleeced in the volatility.  Traders will brag that they are "outsmarting" the "sheeple" because that is what they see their equities and bond colleagues saying about themselves in regards to the regulated markets when the go to work every day.

Just as the traders need to educate themselves on the technological considerations (secure themselves from professional hackers), those that know and understand the technological aspects of btc need to quickly educate themselves on the implications of professional traders in their midst.

Currently I see both sides overestimating themselves, and their ability to anticipate and manage the threat from the side they do not understand.  The professional traders will blindside btc hackers, just as hackers will freely rob ignorant, traders.