The value of Bitcoin has nosedived this morning on news of the arrest of "Dread Pirate Roberts" or Ross Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road.
Silk Road is an internet marketplace on which Bitcoin is extensively used. The site was shut down by US authorities overnight.
As of writing, Bitcoin fell from a high of over US$124 to US$75, recovering to US$91 on the BTC-E exchange.
Silk Road processed around 9.5 million of the approximately twelve million Bitcoins in existence, or around US$1.2 billion (A$1.28 billion) in fiat money.
In a post in October 2011, police said Ulbricht sought an IT expert with knowledge of Bitcoin and asked to be contacted at rossulbricht@gmail.com.
In the complex trail used to pinch Ulbricht, police identified his interests which were tied later to the Dread Pirate Roberts alais he would later create.
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