plus its a bad time for merchants who sell goods or services for bitcoins.   The problem is that if a merchant sells something thats worth $10 when bitcoins are worth $10 each they will get 1 BTC for that sale. If they hold that bitcoin today its only worth $8 and they have sold their product at a loss. you can compensate for the fact that bitcoin may continue to drop by charging more BTC than a product is worth, but this will discourage sales.    some merchants hold on to their bitcoins and exchange them for USD after they have many accumulated (too much trouble doing many small cashouts).