Personally, I am NOT too worried about the MT. Gox situation in the whole scheme of things - however, it is leaving some uncertainty for some time b/c we are NOT getting very clear communication about the extent of the damage and/or the extent to which any investors will be made whole. Certainly with the passage of time, more and more regular people are finding out about bitcoin.. and there becomes more and more potential for bitcoin to begin to fill some various voids and to take on the value of various asset classes in the forum of currency, commodity, money transmitter, and network - amongst other potentialities.
Agreed. Gox has been around since the beginning (well, basically), and so will contribute to uncertainty going forward until we have real information. Gox certainly had more whales than any other exchange with hundreds and thousands of coins being tossed back and forth during volatile periods. It was amazing to watch, actually. My analysis of the situation is that Gox is either massively fraudulent or they're under a gag order. Recent US Silk Road investigations and their seizure of Mark's Dwolla account would support the latter. Watching Mark playfully make an apple tart or play with his cat on his Youtube channel makes it hard to believe he is a complicit criminal, but stranger things have happened.