The most likely reason in my opinion is that TaoBao (the chinese Ebay) is blocking anything related to Crypto.  Also, there's a rumor that the FBI is going to dump their seized Silk Road assets.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/07/the-silk-roads-libertas-is-free-to-the-annoyance-of-us-authorities/

However, I think many people believe that is just shoddy reporting and not true at all.  It could still incite some panic though.