You've got a point with the Japanese crackdown. I'm really interested to see how the market reacts to Japan regulating and legitimizing crypto currency. I'd compare it to the introduction of SOX in the US. You would have expected a negative market reaction to such harsh regulation but, the opposite was the case. Prices reacted positively to the regulation that would prevent incidents like Enron or WorldCom. I do wonder if the same effect is possible in the crypto sphere, since the general community mindset is extremely regulation averse.

I also think the Mt. Gox dump had huge impacts on the market down turn. Which is unfortunate since it just further evidences that the market as a whole still relies heavily on the price of Bitcoin. What's worse is that this guy is still in control of a substantial sum of Bitcoin and could flood the market again if he panics.