Wiped out?
BTC was at ~$625 each 24 hours ago (before the "wipe-out"), and about 5 hours ago it was all the way back to $612 (on BTC-e)
The entire "mini-panic" is easy to reverse, the question is what next?
Answer = The Bitcoin fundamentals are solid and we are probably going higher in 2 weeks or less.
Before the Expedia news came out, Bitcoin was trading in Bitstamp at $650-660. Now it is $570-580, which is equivalent to a 12.5% dip. And I am afraid it might crash even more.
For any price movement you will find news that fit. But just pretending that single news have to do something with price movements: Now that the auction of 30k coins is old news and priced in, how can it impact the price further?
I doubt that there will be arbitrage traders on the government auction, since extreme price movements on the exchanges are not unusual. It's quite risky and they could end up with big losses. I guess it's more attractive for long term investors, who want to bag bigger junks of coins without driving the price on the exchanges crazy.