Criminals may already have made off with $500 million worth of bitcoins since the virtual currency was launched in 2009 — and you can double that if they emptied Mt. Gox's coffers.
Internet criminals, security experts say, are attracted to bitcoins because of their stratospheric rise in value, because they are easier to steal than real money and because they are easier to trade with other criminals. But, they add, bitcoin will survive the damage.
"It's just growing pains," said Keith Jarvis, a security researcher at Dell SecureWorks. "Bitcoin is large enough and has enough momentum behind it to survive any public relations damage from this (Mt. Gox) case or anything else."